Naruto The Living Storm
by Wixeron
Summary: A failed assassination attempt turned Naruto into a living storm! Now Naruto has to cope with the change and bring the storms of change to the ninja world! NarutoxMeixfemKyuubixMikoto.
1. Prolouge: Lightning Personified

**Summary:**Naruto had enough and cursed the gods about his messed up life. The gods decided to mess it even further by striking him with lightning through an assassination attempt. It backfired of course and turned him into a living storm! NarutoxMeixpossible harem.

**Author's Note:**An elemental Naruto! This will be a Kiri Naruto fic and so, it will be a NarutoxMei and possible harem. I've also made Mei younger. In canon, she's around 30 but in this, she's 18 when Naruto first met her.

Being an elemental, Naruto would be very strong in this fic but not godlike. Godlike status will be near the end of the story.

**This chapter has been edited by Firedamaged **and he did a great job! Thank you Firedamaged!

Read and review people!

**Disclaimer:**99.9999% of people in the world don't own Naruto, including me.

* * *

**PROLOUGE: LIGHTNING PERSONIFIED**

**Konoha**

A 6 year old Naruto was fuming and stomping around his apartment in anger. Why he was angry? Well... given the state of his life, it's pretty much justified.

Being only six years old may have been a factor.

What are the odds of being one of, at most, nine people in the world to have a monumentally powerful demon sealed inside of them?

Naruto's got one. Some might consider a hidden reserve of monumental power a good thing, the only problem for Naruto was; he was hated for it. Granted, the hatred wasn't directed at him but to the 'demon-fox' but he still got hated by proxy! Unfortunately, as the only 'logical' outlet for that hatred, Naruto spent most of his life getting treated like a whore in a nunnery.

What made this oh so worse was; the damned demon fox could talk to him. Not to mention that the stupid demon in question got his kicks out of the pain and suffering that comes with the life Naruto led.

"_**MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YES! HURT THE CHILD EVEN MORE! HIS PAIN FUELS ME!"**_said demon roared in his head while eating imaginary hated villagers like eating popcorn.

"Oh you love it don't you?" Naruto said to himself. They said that one of the things that will shape you in life was friends...or rather the people around you. The Kyuubi was no friend, but unfortunately, was the closet thing Naruto had…literally and figuratively.

And Kyuubi was a bad influence.

"_**Of course! I would rather watch you tear the villagers apart, but you don't. So this is the only entertainment I have but, beggars can't be choosers,"**_said the demon and Naruto growled.

"WHY? Why's my life like this? Was I a murderer in a past life? A rapist? What did I do to deserve this?" Naruto screamed to the ceiling.

"_**You were my kit before this,"**_Kyuubi said and Naruto gasped.

"What?" Naruto said loudly.

"_**Just kidding! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!"**_Kyuubi laughed the laugh of the clinically insane.

"FUCK YOU!" Naruto roared.

"_**Well, if you want me so badly, come here then and ripped the seal of my cage. Then I'll let you fuck me in any way you want,"**_Kyuubi said.

"You're a boy! MALE! I don't do men!" Naruto said and tried to tear his hair from his head in frustration.

"_**Pft, you wish! Just because I'm the strongest demon does that mean I'm automatically a male? Sexist!"**_Kyuubi said.

"Huh?" was all that Naruto could answer. What the heck does Kyuubi mean? Does that mean that the Kyuubi's a girl? "What do you mean? Hey!" the Kyuubi stayed silent, however.

"Oh well, I finally get some peace of mind at least." Naruto sighed.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Small house somewhere in Konoha**

A large crowd of ninja gathered in a small house, quietly plotting. Soon, a prominent figure, no doubt their leader, rose and the crowd grew silent.

"Finally! The time has come for us to avenge our loved ones!" the man said. He wore a cloak and an Oni mask so as not to compromise his identity.

"But how are we going to do it Leader?" a random ninja asked. "We won't be able to make a move on him with the ANBU protecting him, we're just regular ninja!"

"Ah! That's where my genius comes to play!" Leader said and took out a scroll. "I have managed to acquire for myself a forbidden assassination technique from Kumo!"

The crowd gasped.

"Yes, my comrades! This technique is the perfect for assassination!" Leader said to the stunned crowd.

"What does it do?" another random ninja asked.

"The skill works like this…" Leader began to explain to the enraptured crowd.

The technique was named as the Lightning Technique: God's Divine Wrath. It works like this; a custom target seal is made and placed on the target, marking them for death in a very literal sense. Then, the caster will create another seal for them to channel their chakra into in order to initiate the technique. A storm cloud will appear above the target and strike them with lightning.

In essence, you could say that it was the almost perfect assassination technique. The lightning bolt is such a powerful force of nature that only a charred corpse will be left and the target seal would be eradicated, leaving no proof. There was also the added bonus of the technique not using lightning natured chakra, which could be traced, but an actual thunderbolt, which was faster, more powerful and untraceable.

These two factors combined would leave people thinking that it was nature or god's wrath that killed the target, and not an assassin.

However, the technique wasn't without its disadvantages. The first was the use of the target seal. The target could realise that he was tagged with a weird seal he had never seen before and might be able to do something to disrupt it.

The second was the preparation time. Manipulating weather patterns to set up a thundercloud took time.

The third was its area of effect. Its efficiency was greatly reduced when the target was indoors. Well, that makes sense; would you go out when there's a storm outside? No! If you do, then you almost deserve a lightning bolt, naturally or not. Also, the range was within the storm cloud. It was true that you can't outrun lightning, but you sure as hell can outrun its storm cloud. So if the target is out of the storm cloud's range, then it will be useless.

The fourth is the amount of chakra needed and its range. The farther the caster was from the storm cloud, the more chakra is needed and the longer it will take to form the cloud.

"Ah! What a splendid technique! It fits the boy's punishment! A punishment from god!" a random ninja said and everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"So, what are we waiting for? We must begin preparations immediately!" Leader said and everyone cheered.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto was pissed again. All because of the stupid villagers.

First, he tried to buy some milk from a store. The store owner decided to sell him the expired ones even though he asked for the good ones and was close to begging the jerk. But no! He wouldn't relent and Naruto threatened to call Sarutobi on him.

The store owner got mad and kicked him out but not before Naruto threw the spoiled milk at him and managed to get some of the curdled product into his mouth.

Second, he wanted to buy some kunai for throwing practice. The store owner sold him bad ones too; they were blunt and rusty. So Naruto pinned the store owner's hand to the counter using the very same kunai.

And now, he had a mob chasing after him. Time to run! And run he did until a he bumped into someone.

It didn't matter, he kept running.

"Heheheheh, I've tagged the kid!" the man that Naruto bumped said to himself. "Now we can start your punishment, demon!"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto was extremely pissed! He finally managed to escape the mob by running to the top of the Hokage Monument and now, it was raining! Heavily! From the looks of it, it was a huge storm, cracks of lightning could be seen from the cloud.

"Gah! They just keep coming, don't they? The misery and pain?" Naruto screamed towards the sky and a lightning struck a few meters near him.

"It's that all you have for me? I've had worse! Come on!" Naruto screamed again.

"_**Kit, as much as I respect your 'take-no-shit' attitude, can't you do it someplace else? Someplace safer and dry, like indoors perhaps?"**_Kyuubi said worriedly.

"Oh so now you decided to talk, huh?" Naruto said and Kyuubi rolled her eyes. "So are you really a female?"

"_**Yes, yes, I am. Now can we leave?"**_Kyuubi said and Naruto was shocked by this revelation until another lightning bolt missed him by a few meters once again, causing him to jump.

"GAH! FUCK YOU KAMI! You gods are cruel, doing this to a child like me!" Naruto screamed.

"_**God damn it kit! You're going to get fried if you stay here! And would you stop cursing the gods already?"**_Kyuubi said. She may be the strongest demon and in her released form, lightning like this was just an itch. But when you're stuck inside a kid and have the majority of your powers locked away, a simple lightning strike can kill you.

Cracks of lightning started to converged into one and a bright ball of lightning could be seen hovering above them in the cloud. Kyuub's eyes went wide, knowing what would happen.

"I don't care! They think they're the only ones that can screw with me? Well, screw them! Screw them all!" Naruto shook his fist towards the massive ball of lightning.

"You think that just because you're all high and mighty you could do anything you want? Huh? Well this is Naruto Uzumaki telling you otherwise!" Naruto screamed again.

The ball of lightning chose that moment to unleash its built up energy. What erupted from the centre of the cloud, directly above Naruto's head was more like a pillar than a bolt of lightning, centred around the little orange-clad boy.

"_**We're screwed, we're fucked, we're dead, SHIIIIIT!"**_Kyuubi screamed.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Mindscape**

BOOM!

CRASH!

CRACK!

Naruto woke up in the familiar environment of his mindscape, the sewer prison that kept the Kyuubi at bay. "What the hell is that sound?" Naruto asked aloud. Normally, when he arrived here, he would hear the sounds of water dripping. But now...

The place looked like it was going to come down. Some of the walls were cracked and flashes of electricity could be seen coursing beyond it, while some were riddled with holes and Naruto saw some kind of a storm outside of it.

"**God damn it!"**Kyuubi screamed and Naruto ran towards her.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked and saw that the Kyuubi's tails were spread like a peacock's and was glowing with red chakra. The chakra was seeping all over the place.

"**What's wrong? What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong!"**Kyuubi screamed at the blonde boy. Naruto just simply sat down and crossed his arms together. **"Your eyeballs just got blinded by the intense brightness of the lightning strike! Not that it matters anyway as your eyeballs are now fried! Oh and that also applies to your whole body! After this, you will be such a badly cooked human that not even carrion eating animals would look at you!"**

Naruto looked around while scratching his head. "Huh, that's not something you get to experience everyday," Naruto said and Kyuubi wished she could do a face palm right now, but she has important matters to attend to. "So how come I'm here anyway?"

"**That's because I pulled you in here! Time in here moves slower than outside. Your body's being fried right now and my regeneration is the only thing that's keeping you alive! And it's a good thing that I brought you here, if not, you'd gone insane from the pain!"**Kyuubi screamed at him.

"Ah..." Naruto said. "Wait, I thought you want me to be insane?"

"**I...I!"** Kyuubi was at loss for words. It was true; making the boy insane would definitely help her gain freedom. Why didn't just leave the boy outside? Could some part of her want to protect the boy? Did she have _feeling_ for a _human_? **"Shut up!"**

"So what now?" Naruto asked.

"**I'm kind of busy here!"**Kyuubi screamed at him. It was true, in the real world, the 'freak' lightning strike that hit Naruto lasted quite a while. It didn't just hit Naruto for a second or two, but enshrouded him for full 10 seconds!

The lightning was now destroying Naruto's body while Kyuubi was trying to heal it and thus, Naruto's body was in a constant state of being broken down and repaired.

Right now, Kyuubi was pumping 8 tails worth of chakra through Naruto's body to keep the regeneration going strong enough to try and keep Naruto's body together.

"**Sorry kid, either you die as a human, or live as a demon!"**Kyuubi said. Naruto was about to speak when Kyuubi released a sudden burst of chakra that send Naruto careening back into the real world.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Sarutobi Hiruzen was as usual, doing his most hated job, paperwork. He desperately wished something exciting would happen to pull him away from doing the job.

Today he got his wish. It seemed that a mob had gathered and chased one of his charges around the town.

'Huh, it's been a while since this happened. Last time was 3 years ago and I thought I'd made that incident a crystal clear example of what would happen if they do this again,' Sarutobi thought.

Sarutobi growled and got up to deal with the mob, personally. If the kid was unharmed, he would just break their hands. If the kid _was_ hurt, he'd kill them all.

Naruto managed to escape them, fortunately but Sarutobi kept his word. The people that were in the mob had their hands broken.

Sarutobi was about to start his search for Naruto when suddenly a storm cloud appeared and began to rain heavily on Konoha. 'Strange, there weren't any clouds just a minute ago,' Sarutobi mused. It had been a bight and sunny day in Konoha, it had looked like it was going to be one of the hottest on record.

'I hope that Naruto managed to get indoors,' Sarutobi mused again when he heard a familiar voice shouting on top of the Hokage Monument.

Sarutobi's eyes and mouth widened in shock at seeing the subject of his musings shouting at the storm cloud. "Of all the places, he chose the highest place in Konoha?" Sarutobi said and his heart almost stopped when two lightning strikes almost hit him in quick succession.

"ANBU! GET THAT KID AWAY FROM THERE!" Sarutobi's orders boomed and all of his elites quickly raced towards the blonde boy, soon to be a lightning rod.

Alas, none present in Konoha was faster than lightning and sure enough, a huge lightning strike crashed down on Naruto as he stood atop the Fourth's head.

All who witnessed it waited with bated breath. The huge pillar of lightning, no doubt the biggest thunderbolt anyone had ever seen, lasted for a full 10 seconds, but to all of them it was an eternity.

Strangely though, the lightning pillar of such power and size should have destroyed the Fourth's head, but it didn't. It was as if Naruto was blocking the lightning from going any further.

Then the witnesses grew fearful as a red aura began to spread from the boy, condensing into separate tails of chakra, eight in all. Cat ANBU, who was a few meters ahead of Sarutobi, grabbed his left hand in pain and Sarutobi knew what it meant.

Before anyone could react the blood red pillar of lightning vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The next second, however, a ball of crackling electrical energy exploded out from Naruto, reducing the Yondaime's head to rubble. No-one moved, their shock held them in place.

"GO! GO! GO!" Sarutobi regained his composure first and barked his orders again before all the ANBU disappeared, along with the Hokage.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Ouh..." Naruto groggily sat up and rubbed the top of his head. His body felt weird…really, really weird.

For one, he didn't feel tired at all. Granted that it was hard for him to get tired but this was different! Its like... like that time he drank that damned drink named four... four something. He couldn't remember the name, but the drink kept him up for 3 days straight and he had enough energy to go on a non-stop pranking spree of the whole village.

After that the drink became outlawed in Konoha. Hell, it had been disapproved of before, now even owning some of the stuff carried a heavy sentence.

'Why is my skin all yellowy?' Naruto thought, holding his hand up to his face for inspection. A sudden spark shot between his index and middle fingers. Instinct made him yell and pull his hand away but he was shocked, or rather surprised that he wasn't shocked. He'd felt nothing. Looking down at his, now semi-naked, body he realised that he could see sparks jumping all over the place, even running across his skin and arcing from his limbs to the ground.

Having a weird idea, Naruto reached out in front of himself and was even more surprised when his arm extended beyond his normal reach, despite the fact that some part of him expected it to happen.

"What? Awesome! Kyuubi, did you do this?" Naruto asked.

_"__**Shut...up!"**_Kyuubi said before she went silent. Naruto shrugged it and waved a fist to the sky.

"HAH! Take that you stupid gods! I took the best shit you got and I came out of it like a boss!" Naruto screamed and he heard the Kyuubi groaned inside him.

Just then a breeze carrying a weird smell flew into his nose and caused an itch. Naruto rubbed it but this only irritated his nose even further. "Aaa.."

"Naruto!" Sarutobi screamed and gained Naruto's attention, but it was too late.

"Oh, grand-ACHOO!" Naruto sneezed hard, a loud crack was heard and Naruto was gone in a yellow lightning.

"Naruto? NARUTO!" Sarutobi screamed to the heavens.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**The same small house somewhere in Konoha**

The crowd of ninjas were all sprawled on the floor, all of them dead or dying from chakra depletion.

"Finally! Re-venge...is...served!" Leader said with his final breath before joining his comrades.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**An island near Kiri**

A lightning bolt slammed into the ground, hard and Naruto appeared, face-down.

"Ugh, what now?" Naruto raised his head and viewed his surroundings. This didn't look like Konoha.

"Oh, I see...you're not done, are you?" Naruto got up and shook his fist to the skies again. "It's that all?"

A small storm cloud appeared above his head and began to launch miniature lightning bolts at him. "What the? Is that it?" Naruto said and cupped his mouth with his hands, trying to hold back his laughter.

"Come on! I ate your freaking godly thunderbolt! And now you send me this?" Naruto said before he burst out laughing at the storm cloud's 'efforts' to harm him.

After he had his laugh, Naruto realised that the storm cloud had disappeared and his skin had also turned back to its normal, fleshy self. In other words, he no longer looked like a living lightning bolt. 'Hey,' he thought, 'could that be what I am? A living thunderbolt?'

Taking another look at himself he realised one more thing that drove the question of his new 'super-awesome-electric-skin-thing' to the back of his mind. "Why the hell do I look like a twelve-year-old?" He shouted to no-one in particular. "Oi! Kyuubi, did you do this?"

Still no reply.

"And I'm naked too! So now that you know you can't hurt me, you decided to attack my dignity instead? Bastards!" Naruto said and he shook his fist to the sky again. The small cloud then appeared again and assaulted him with lightning and rained on his head.

"Alright, fine, not a problem anyway," Naruto sighed as his head was drenched and turned around and saw...

A red headed woman was staring at him with her mouth wide open.

They both stared at each other for a moment but it felt like an eternity. Suddenly, the mini storm cloud released a huge thunderclap, which brought the both of them back to the real world.

Naruto was scrambling his head for an answer that hopefully wouldn't cause the woman to inflict bodily harm on him. Fortunately, an answer came up.

"I...just got back from a nude beach?" Naruto said with a smile.

* * *

**Author's Note:**Now I know that the title says that Naruto's a living storm but in this chappie he's more of a lightning incarnation. The storm will be his upgrade later in the story.

You've read this, now review!

Jutsus used:

**Lightning Technique: God's Divine Wrath –**Creates a storm cloud above the target and after a while, a lightning bolt is casted down towards the target. The target is marked using a specialised target seal. As the lightning is real lightning, avoiding the lightning is almost impossible. Multiple targets can also be marked.

However, there are drawbacks on using this skill. The first is the use of the target seal which the target could realise something was amiss. Second was the preparation time. It takes a while for the storm cloud to reach maturity.

Third was the area of effect. The user is completely safe if they are outside of the storm cloud's range. Also, if they are indoors, the effectiveness of the lightning is reduced.

The fourth was the amount of chakra needed and range. If the caster is further away from the storm cloud, the more chakra and time is needed. Also, the amount and strength of lightning is dependent on the amount of chakra used.

This technique is almost similar to Uchiha Sasuke's Kirin albeit in a few differences. All in all, Kirin is much more effective but requires the user to be outside to cast it while the Divine Wrath can be done indoors.


	2. Chapter 1: Demon Body Human Heart

**Author's Note: **So I've decided that this will be a NarutoxMeixKyuubi harem but I'm not sure to add more. Oh well, details at the bottom.

**xNamikazeKyuubix, FerPeinRikudou: **Yes, Naruto will be a little bit loony in this story.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything made by Kishimoto Masasi and the song 'Lights' by Ellie Goulding. I only own the OC and original jutsus.

* * *

**CHAPTER 1: DEMON BODY HUMAN HEART**

**An island near Kiri**

"I...just got back from a nude beach?" Naruto said with a smile. The red headed woman however, closed her gaping mouth and glowered at him.

The red headed woman looked to be in her 20s or so Naruto thought. He couldn't really pinpoint the exact number. Oh well. The woman however, has what has to be the weirdest hair he ever seen in his life!

Her hair was red but not really red. More like auburn coloured and was waist length. She has light green eyes, however, has four long bangs and one of it covered her right eye. Naruto wondered why it covered her eye. Maybe she has a scar she on her right eye? She also has large breasts.

She was wearing a plain blue shirt and short black pants. Judging from her sweating, she must have been exercising or maybe training prior to Naruto's arrival.

"There's no nude beach around here!" the red head said. "And did you just travel using lightning?" There's no one here when she and her family moved here before, so they can safely say that this was a private island, property of the Terumi clan. But more importantly, the kid just got here by lightning!

"Well of course not here. I just got back from it to here using the lightning," Naruto cooked up another lie again and the woman glowered harder, knowing that it wasn't the truth.

Naruto realised this and decided to be smart about and scratched his head. "Okay...I wasn't from a nude beach. I was...from my home...can I at least have something to cover myself? If there's one thing I know about being a guy is that being naked in front of a woman tend to have a 50-50 chance of getting his balls kicked in," Naruto replied.

"Why should I give you anything when you're a stranger? And naked too?" the woman crossed her arm across her busty chest.

"Oh that's right! I'm Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto said with a smile.

The woman's eyes widened for a moment. 'Uzumaki? But...they were destroyed ages ago! Well, not the whole clan but only their country. But the kid's not a red head, is he really is an Uzumaki?' the woman thought.

She may sound a little paranoid but can you blame her? Her life so far wasn't a fairy tale and the kid's weird. He just got here using lightning! And Mei hated lightning.

That tended to make you a bit paranoid. Mei decided that maybe she could try to be civil to the kid for the moment.

"Mei Terumi," Mei said and Naruto's smile grew wider.

"Aaaannd now we know each other's name, so that doesn't make us strangers anymore, right?" Naruto said with a smile and Mei raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on! My...my little junior's feeling weird okay! And I think this situation is making 'him' weirder!" Naruto said and he pointed down to his crotch and Mei looked down to see...

'Oh! That's...on a kid like him? I...I' Mei stammered in her mind. "Fine! Follow me!" She said with a blush and turned around and started to walk.

However, what Mei didn't saw was that the moment she turned her back on him, Naruto's smile faded and a depressed look replaced it. Naruto looked at his arms which cackled with lightning and sighed before going after Mei.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto said to two more people in front of him. Currently, Naruto, Mei and what has to be her two relatives, probably parents are in front of a small house.

Mei quickly got inside and appeared moments later with man's clothing for him. Naruto then quickly wear it but he realised that it was too big! It probably belonged to the man in front of him.

The man has brown hair in a ponytail, black eyes and vertical slash scar on his right cheek. He wore a black plain kimono and crossed his arms in front of his chest. The man looked to be in his thirties and judging from his body language, he's a warrior.

"Takeshi Terumi," the man said in a deep voice and Naruto realised that Takeshi was looking him over from head to toe.

The other person was a woman standing beside Takeshi. She has solid red hair, unlike Mei's mixture of brown and red. Her hairstyle was quite normal compared to Mei's however and it was plain and it was tied in a ponytail too. She has light green eyes and she wore a plain red kimono.

"Mai Terumi. Nice to meet you Uzumaki-san," Mai said in a soft voice. Well, at least she's nice.

"So...what brings you here?" Takeshi asked and Naruto scratched his head.

"A sneeze?" Naruto answered honestly and Takeshi raised an eyebrow at him while Mai giggled.

"The truth, boy!" Takeshi commanded but Naruto wasn't affected. Having countless adults screaming at him and demanded him things has toughened him up. Besides, he wasn't scared as he did tell him the truth. It just wasn't detailed after all.

"It is the truth," Naruto said and Takeshi glowered, "It just wasn't detailed..." Naruto said again and his stomach decided to save the situation by growling at everybody.

The sound that came from the stomach was monstrous! In fact, had any Konoha citizen that has faced the Kyuubi, heard her growl and survived, they could say that the sound from the Kyuubi and Naruto's stomach was the same!

It makes one wonder if the sound was actually Naruto's stomach or the Kyuubi herself.

Takeshi was taken aback by this, Mei let out a small 'eep!' while Mai just laughed. Naruto himself looked astonished by his stomach.

"That's a new record..." Naruto said sheepishly and rubbed his stomach.

Mai stopped her laughed and wiped away a tear. "Well, Uzumaki-san, can I call you Naruto?" Mei asked and Naruto nodded. "We're just about to have dinner. Why don't you join us?"

Naruto nodded again with a smile and followed them inside the house.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto ate what has to be the best dinner he ever had so far. It was normal food for once and not instant ramen.

Heck, he only ate ramen because that's the only food that he could get. The only restaurant that accepted him and not poisoned him even if they do was the Ichiraku Ramen. And that place only sells ramen. So now you know why he liked ramen so much. He didn't have much choice in the matter.

It's been ages since he had rice.

"Seconds, please!" Naruto asked and held his bowl at Mai and she filled it with rice and smiled at him too. This action made Naruto felt good because no one has ever done this for him before.

Mai gave him back his rice bowl and Naruto just stared at the harmless food in his hand.

"What's wrong? Is there something in the rice?" Mai asked with concern and Naruto shook his head and smiled at her and resumed eating. Mai however, saw his eyes in the brief contact they had; it was teary.

"So, Naruto...how exactly you got here? Mei said you arrived in a lightning," Takeshi asked and Mei, who has changed into a plain blue kimono nodded.

"I...I don't know. I got hit by a lightning strike and after that, I somehow survived. And then I sneezed and the next thing I know, I was in front of your daughter," Naruto replied. Naruto didn't feel comfortable telling them the whole truth...yet. Sure, they were nice people, but Naruto has been fooled by kindness before.

And yes, Mei is the daughter of Mai and Takeshi.

Takeshi eyed the boy, who resumed eating and knew that the boy didn't tell the whole truth. "How you survived the lightning strike and got sent here anyway? Do you use any technique before this? Or do you have a bloodline or something?" Takeshi asked and Naruto shook his head.

"_**Well...you do have a bloodline now," **_the demon inside him said and Naruto perked up. This gained Takeshi's attention but Naruto gave him a weak smile and resumed eating.

'You finally said something. What happened?' Naruto thought.

"_**Saving your ass took out much of me. We'll talk later," **_Kyuubi said and Naruto nodded.

The dinner was silent for a moment before Mai sighed. Mei clearly didn't want to talk to let her parents deal with the situation. Takeshi knew that he couldn't brute force the answer from the kid and decided to give him some time. Mai however, doesn't like a silent dinner at all.

"So Naruto, where are you from?" Mai asked and Naruto stopped eating but stared at his rice.

Sarutobi once told him that should he ever find himself to be outside of Konoha's gates and met a stranger, he was not to tell them where he's from. Sarutobi told him to remain silent and wait for ninja's from Konoha to come for him.

Mai realised his silence meant that he wasn't going to answer. "We're from Kiri," Mai stated and Naruto looked at her. He didn't expect for her to tell something about them. He expected the give and take policy; tell something about you, and they will tell something about them.

Naruto thought that should he refuse to tell them anything, they would refuse too.

"We were Kiri ninja's before. Takeshi and I were Jonins but Mei here was a Chunin," Mai stated. Takeshi looked angry that Mai was so open about it and opened he was about to say something when Mai glared at him. Not a sound came from Takeshi.

Naruto however, was thinking hard. If memory serves him right, Jonin was a high level ninja while Chunin was the medium. Wait...

"You said were? What happened? Why do you quit?" Naruto asked and Mei looked uncomfortable.

Mai smiled and said, "We were hunted down by our own village," Naruto widened his eyes in shock. "This is because we have a bloodline...well, Takeshi and I have one. Mei here have both of our bloodline," Mai said and smiled at her daughter.

Mei smiled back weakly. Naruto however, has conflicted feelings. Their situation was almost like his! And Mai was so open with him. He felt bad if he didn't do the same. But...but he wasn't sure if he was ready...

"Did you run away because of what you have inside you too?" Mai asked and looked at him. Naruto perked up, shocked at her deduction. Mai then smiled at this, knowing her guess was right and Naruto looked away. He felt uncomfortable at how easy it was for Mai to see through him.

Suddenly, sparks of lightning arced from him, gaining everyone's attention. At first, it was small but then larger ones started to appear. "I...I'm sorry!" Naruto said and dashed outside.

Everyone was silent for a moment before Takeshi spoke, "So what do you think?"

"He's not from Kiri, that's for sure. His reaction shows that he didn't know about the Purge," Mai answered.

"Kumo then? It seems to me that his bloodline is lightning based," Takeshi asked again.

"I'm not sure if he really is from Kumo. But yes, his bloodline revolves around lightning, much like the Hozuki clan is revolved around water," Mai stated.

"So...so...what do we do with him?" Mei asked uncomfortably. Mai looked at her and smiled.

"We'll let him cool down for a moment," Mai said.

"And if he decided to leave?" Mei asked again.

"Then that is his choice," Takeshi stated. "If he arrived with lightning, I doubt there's much we could do to stop him from going anyway,"

Mei didn't say anything but replied with a dissatisfied look.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Arrgghh!" Naruto screamed as he let out another blast of lightning at the water. "God damn it!" he said while releasing another blast. He was at the beach now, releasing his pant up anger in the form of lightning towards the water.

Naruto was having a lot of conflicted feelings right now and his new found abilities didn't help either.

"_**Kit," **_Kyuubi said and Naruto closed his eyes.

'What?' Naruto asked internally.

"_**What were you thinking back there before we got hit by the lightning? Why didn't you run away?" **_Kyuubi asked.

'Why do you care?' Naruto asked.

"_**Because it seems to me that you were trying to commit suicide! I don't believe that you're dumb enough not to take cover especially when two lightning almost hit you!" **_Kyuubi stated in an angry tone. _**"And now look what happened to you!"**_

'Weren't you supposed to be happy? I did gain a bloodline after all,' Naruto said.

"_**A part of me is happy, yes. But another part isn't! We could have died back there!" **_Kyuubi said angrily.

"Well, sure, this happened because of me. But all of this shit wouldn't happen if it weren't for you in the first place!" Naruto screamed at the sky angrily and arcs of lightning started to appear from his body. "If it weren't for you, it wouldn't be up there on the Hokage Monument in the first place!"

The Kyuubi growled for a while before going silent and Naruto was again, confused. Kyuubi usually took everything that Naruto threw at her. Cursers, blames, threats, and she usually responded with her diabolic laugh of hers.

But now...

"Hey," a voice said and this surprised Naruto, which caused him to involuntarily released a burst of lightning.

"Kyaa!" Mei screamed and Naruto quickly got up to see that she was on the floor. She was electrocuted by his burst but she wasn't badly harmed.

"Shit, shit! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Naruto said and went at her. This however, proved to be a mistake as more lightning strikes Mei.

Mei screamed again and Naruto backed away and the lightning stopped hitting her and instead, arcing to the ground.

Naruto looked horrified at what he has done while Mei groaned in pain. "I...I didn't mean to! I can't control my powers yet!"

"Fuck you!" Mei said while getting to her feet. "You shouldn't have come here! I fucking hate lightning! I hate the thunder and I hate the storm! I hate you!" she said before running back to the house. However, Naruto saw something in her eyes before she left; fear and hatred.

Naruto slumped to the floor and held his head with his hands and ruffled his hair roughly, sending large arcs of lightning everywhere. "Grrrr FUCK!"

His life was messed up before this. And now, it was surely destroyed.

"Hey," Naruto heard a voice said and he turn to look at the source. It was Takeshi. "Sorry about her. She wasn't always like this with other bloodline users. Your case was special after all," Takeshi explained.

"Great, everything is about me is it?" Naruto said angrily. Kami seemed to hate him very much. First to put the demon inside him, turn him to lightning, send him to a place where there are people like him in a way but only to have one of them hate him because of what he is now!

"Maybe," Takeshi said and sat down in front of him where the lightning didn't reach him. "She has a bad past involving thunderstorms,"

They both looked at each other for a moment before Naruto asked. "How bad?"

"Our clan was purged during a thunderstorm," Takeshi said with a grim line. "And not just ours, other clans were destroyed during thunderstorms too," Naruto's eyes widened at this. "Our enemies doesn't have any bloodlines and they knew that fighting us straight on would be a disadvantage to them. So they decided to assassinate us during the thunderstorm,"

Naruto groaned and shook his head again. 'Great, so she must think that I have something to do with the storm!' Naruto thought angrily. And then Naruto realised the real reason why Mei hated him...

'She must have thought that I'm here to kill her and her family!' Naruto thought and he clenched his fist.

Takeshi got to his feet and turned around. "Don't beat yourself about it kid. It's not your fault. Mai and I don't blame you for it," Takeshi said and Naruto felt a bit better. "Come inside and sleep this through," Takeshi said and walked away.

Naruto reluctantly got up and went after him. Kami just kept throwing shit after shit at him and it doesn't seem to stop anytime soon.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

The next day wasn't any better. Kyuubi still kept silent, Mei avoided him while Mai and Takeshi went out of the island to get supplies. So he was left alone to ponder about his situation.

Like how to control his newfound powers. So far he hasn't had much luck. It turns out that his lightning powers are very much related to his emotions. Get angry and big ass lightning bolts appear. Get happy...well he hasn't much luck on being happy yet.

And he still doesn't know whether he can turn into pure lightning again or not. It seems that being pure lightning is his way of moving large distances in a short time. But there came he question; even if he can travel, where would he go?

For years he dreamed of running away from Konoha, but to where? Was the outside world better than Konoha? He didn't know.

"Hey," Mei called out to him. Naruto turned around to see her in her training clothes again, but this time, there were bandages on her skin. "Time for dinner," she simply said and walked away.

Naruto sighed and followed suit.

Dinner that night was uneventful. Mei was silent the whole time and so was Naruto. Mai, the ever silent hater, chatted with her husband. Mei finished her meal quicker than usual and excused herself. Naruto also excused himself to catch up after her. Both Mai and Takeshi shared worried looks but they decided to let things happen first.

"Wait!" Naruto said to Mei in the corridor to the rooms. Mei stopped but didn't turn around to face him. Naruto sighed and spoke, "I want to say that I'm sorry for hurting you,"

Mei didn't respond. "So...I'm sorry for hurting you. That's all," Naruto said and was about to walk away when Mei spun to face him.

"I don't care about your apology!" Mei said, her voice seething with anger. Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. "I want you to leave!"

"What? Why?" Naruto asked back. "Is it because I hurt you? I didn't mean to!"

"Really? Or is that just an act?" Mei shot back and Naruto was surprised but he knew what she meant.

"I'm not a ninja! I just got my powers, alright?" Naruto said through gritted teeth, angry at the accusation.

"You expect me to believe that? A lot of ninjas already reached Chunin at your age!" Mei said.

"I'm not! I'm only 6 years old!" Naruto said and Mei scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Really? A 6 year old in a body of 12 years old?" Mei said, disbelieving.

"A lot of shit happened to me, alright?" Naruto countered and Mei looked away, still not believing him. This angered Naruto even more.

"It's not fair to blame me for the deaths of your clan! I didn't have anything to do with it!" Naruto stated.

"It doesn't have to be you," Mei said without even looking at him and Naruto's clenched his fists in anger.

"But you're still blaming me for something I didn't do? You're a fucker, you know that?" Naruto said and received a right hook from Mei. Naruto stumbled to the wall but quickly stood up again and glared at her.

"You don't know anything! You don't know the kind of shit that I have to go through!" Mei said through gritted teeth.

Naruto spat blood on her the floor near her feet before glaring at her again. "That's true. I didn't know the pain of losing loved ones, but that's because I don't have much to lose in the first place! But that doesn't mean I don't know shit about suffering!" Naruto said in anger but Mei wasn't affected.

What does he know anyway?

"I've known about your story; that you were discriminated because of your bloodline and you witness the massacre of your clan. So let me tell you mine! From the day I was born, my own father sealed a demon inside me!" Naruto said and Mei looked shocked from this.

Yes, Naruto knew as Kyuubi told him on the first day they met in an attempt to break him.

"I'm from Konoha and the Host for the Nine Tailed Beast! Ever since I was little, I was discriminated, hated, prejudiced and bullied. I've had countless assassination attempts on me and you know the most memorable one I've had? I was poisoned in a restaurant and no one did anything to help me!" Naruto said and Mei looked horrified with each word that came from Naruto's mouth.

"You at least have a family! I don't! And do you want to know why I got hit by lightning in the first place? Because I wanted to die! But it seems that Kami wasn't through with playing with me because here I am!" Naruto said his eyes started to tear.

"All this time, they hated me for something that I didn't do, for something that I wasn't. They called me demon, but I took solace in the fact that I didn't do any of the things they said I did, the fact I...wasn't a demon!" Naruto said, tears running down his cheek.

"But now...I am one, and they were right all along. Before this, I don't have any trouble touching people, and now..." Naruto said as arcs of lightning started to appear from his body. "You see? Now I don't have anywhere to go! I don't know what to do!"

"I..I," Mei didn't know what to say. She didn't think much of the kid...Naruto's feelings before. She never did. And now she regretted it.

"I thought that you understood...that you're different. But obviously I'm wrong as you're just the same as everyone else! You're just the same as the people that discriminated your own clan!" Naruto said and ran away, the lightning arcs followed him.

Mei felt a massive guilt inside her and she fell to the floor, crying. All this time, she couldn't see past her own suffering to see that Naruto too was suffering. And worse, she blamed him for the sins that he didn't do!

How could she be so foolish? So selfish?

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"ARRGGHHHH!" Naruto screamed towards the heaven while releasing a large beam of lightning.

"You fucker! Take it back! Take it baaaccckkk!" Naruto screamed and threw more bolts at the sky, hoping that he could hit the being that caused him so much suffering, or at least, remove his 'curse' from him.

"I'm not...your toy..." Naruto cried and he sat down and hugged himself. To make it worse, a storm cloud was heading towards the island. A thunder could be heard and Naruto cried even harder.

"What did you do?" Takeshi screamed at him and Naruto turned around to face his angry look.

"I...I" Naruto struggled to answer but Takeshi cut in.

"There are active Hunter Ninja's active everywhere! You just alerted them to where we are!" Takeshi said and Naruto looked horrified.

It seems that Kami wasn't through toying with him.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Eleven Kiri Hunter ninjas sat around in a bonfire, all of them were eating their dinner. Their twelfth member came rushing to the leader of the group.

"Sir! I saw bursts of lightning from an island near here sir!" the ninja said.

"And?" Hunter Leader said in a bored tone. Lightning was a normal thing. Why would he fuss about it?

"The lightning came from the ground sir," the ninja said again and Hunter Leader perked up. "More specifically, it came from the island where we speculated some of the bloodline remnant is. It could be that other hunter groups have engaged them,"

Hunter Leader smiled and tossed his food into the fire. "Well, let's not let them have all the fun, shall we?" he then got to his feet and wore his mask while the rest followed suit.

"And it seems that a storm is heading towards the island," the ninja stated.

"Ah," Hunter Leader cracked his neck. "It seems that Kami is on our side again!"

The rest of the squad cheered and they began to move.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"I didn't mean to!" Naruto chanted again and again to himself as he rocked his body back and forth. Mei didn't fare any better either as her phobia of thunderstorm kicked in and she was gripped with fear, unable to move.

"Damn it! Guys let's go!" Takeshi said as he tried to grab Mei but she refused to go outside where the storm was raging while Naruto released arcs of lightning, making the task of touching him almost impossible.

Mai bit her lip and was thinking of her options. Their bloodlines, although powerful, was severely limited by the heavy rain. Her husband, Takeshi was from the Terumi clan, who uses Fire and Water Techniques to create the Boil Technique; essentially a melting mist.

However, its usage was limited outdoors right now as the rain can reduce its effect. It has to be used indoors but she was sure that the hunter ninjas would not be foolish enough to engage them inside.

Mai wasn't from the Terumi clan but she was the daughter of Roshi, the Host of the Four Tailed Beast and gained the bloodline to use Lava Technique using Fire and Earth techniques.

Again, her lava's potency is reduced in the heavy rain, turning them from melting flaming earths to just normal rocks.

She didn't have much time to think about it further as numerous water dragons slammed the house, destroying and flooding it.

"Damn it! We have to do something! We have to fight!" Takeshi said and Mai agreed. They may not be able to use their bloodline now, but they have other elements too.

Takeshi and Mai soon disappeared in Flame Flickers, leaving Naruto and Mei alone.

Naruto closed his eyes and hoped that everything will be over when he opened it.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Mindscape**

Naruto was back in the mindscape now. It looked like before as there as still cracks and holes and a storm was still raging outside of it. However, the sewer's water was now chest deep.

"**Kit, are you just going to sit here and weep?" **Kyuubi said angrily, her red eyes glowered at him.

"Shut up! You don't have the right to say anything! You were the cause of all this!" Naruto shot back angrily.

"**That maybe true, but these people are going to kill you regardless! Are you just going to sit around and let them?" **Kyuubi screamed at him.

Naruto clenched his head at the pain from the scream. "Let them! Maybe they'll do a better job than everyone else before this!"

"**You're a pathethic fucker! Where's your 'take-no-shit' tough attitude before this? You're crazy and annoying attitude?" **Kyuubi said.

"It was just a front! A cover! I acted tough because that's the only thing I can do!" Naruto replied and his shoulders slumped.

"**Now you can do something! You have your own power! You command the lightning, the thunder and the storms!" **Kyuubi said.

"It's a curse! I won't use it!" Naruto replied and Kyuubi growled in anger. "In fact, I'm tired of all this shit! I'm tired of everything!"

Naruto then began to wade through the water and the seal on his stomach was visible. The spiral seal then formed together in the shape of a black circle and black liquid started to pour from it. Naruto's eyes began to darken as he approach Kyuubi and the water level raised even more.

"I'll free you, I will die, we both got what we want and we both will be happy!" Naruto said.

And then Kyuubi realised that Naruto was broken.

'**The water level represents his hopelessness. Once it reaches over his head, he will drown and he will be consumed by negativity,' **Kyuubi thought as Naruto inched closer towards the gate.

'**I've dreamed of this moment! The moment where the boy was crushed by the intense negativity placed upon him! But...but why it felt wrong? I should be happy! I should...what is this FEELING? It isn't hatred! This alien feeling!' **Kyuubi though angrily.

And then it struck Kyuubi. The feeling was similar to how Mito always described it to her. It was...

No! She wasn't made for that! She's malice incarnate! She...

"**FINE!" **Kyuubi roared and Naruto stopped his advance.** "But let me ask you this, all this time you were blamed for something you did not do and were not. Now however, the situation we're in is entirely your fault! So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let innocent people get hurt because of you?"**Kyuubi replied.

Naruto thought about for a moment. All this time, everything that has been done to him was wrongly justified. It wasn't his fault. He didn't do anything. And one thing for sure, he didn't hurt innocent people, only the ones that hurt him before.

But now, if it weren't for him, the hunter ninjas wouldn't have assaulted the island and the Terumi family wouldn't be in this situation! And now, they're going to get hurt because of him.

Naruto clenched his fist so hard that his knuckles turned white.

Should he go back?

"I...I...no matter how hard I tried, no matter what I do, it won't work!" Naruto said again and more black liquid started to pour out.

"**THEN DIE TRYING INSTEAD OF QUITTING! DIE ON YOUR FEET AND NOT ON YOUR KNEES!" **Kyuubi screamed with such force that Naruto was blown backwards.

Naruto got to his feet and stared at Kyuubi for a moment before turning back. Once Naruto was gone, the water level started to recede a little bit.

Kyuubi for some reason, felt happy that the boy wasn't truly broken yet.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Mai and Takeshi were now tied by multiple Water Whips around both of their arms by 4 hunter ninjas, but they managed to kill 4 of them before they were overpowered. And now, they were at their mercy.

"Well, well, well. Look at what we have here. The last Terumi and his wife," Hunter Leader said while a lightning flashed across the sky and was followed by the thunder.

"Racists scum!" Takeshi said.

"Auw, that hurt my non-existent heart," Hunter Leader said in a mock voice and the boys laughed. He then walked towards Takeshi and punched him in the guts. Takeshi didn't show any response when Takeshi punched him again and again until he coughed up blood.

"You killed my boys," Hunter Leader said. "I don't like that,"

"You killed my clan members," Takeshi replied. "I don't like that,"

Hunter Leader smiled at the comeback. "Well, no matter, you'll be dead anyway. And who knows, maybe we can have some fun with your wife. You did train her well, did you?" Hunter Leader grinned at him.

"You FUCKER!" Takeshi spat at him but it was blocked by the mask.

Hunter Leader wagged his finger in front of Takeshi. "Tch, tch, tch. I planned to be merciful by having you killed first. But now, you will die last," Hunter Leader said as he moved towards Mai instead.

"You monster! You let her go!" Takeshi screamed and Hunter Leader was about to touch her when a voice screamed and gained everyone's attention.

"Let them go!" Naruto screamed from the top of the house.

"Oh, so the son decided to play hero eh? Well, sorry you're about to lose that game," Hunter Leader said. "Sorry, I don't deal with dead people!" he screamed this time to make sure Naruto heard him.

Naruto gritted his teeth while thinking about what he has to do to help them. But he could do much as two hunter ninja appeared from his sides and launched Water Whips at him. The Water Whips managed to wrap his arms and Naruto was tied just like Mai and Takeshi.

Naruto smirked and let loose a torrent of lightning from his body. The lightning travelled to the ninjas using the Water Whips and electrocuted them. Hunter Leader growled at this and motioned to the ninjas that were binding Mai and Takeshi.

In a swift motion, Mai and Takeshi were brought together and tied using physical ropes.

Naruto stopped his flow of lightning but he was disappointed to find that the ninja's still held on to him. The ninja's were weakened but the attack wasn't enough to down them. And what's more, a ninja brought Mei out of the house and tied her next to her parents.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we got a package here, eh boys?" Hunter Leader said and his ninja's snickered.

Hunter Leader then sighed before taking out three kunais. "I told you, you're going to lose this game," he then threw the kunais at Naruto.

The first two struck his torso while the last was aimed at his mouth but Naruto managed to bite it to stop it. He then spat the bloodied kunai out.

"A word of advice fuckers, you shouldn't play out in the storm," Naruto said and flared his normal chakra all over his body. Everyone readied themselves for what Naruto was about to do, but, what happened next shocked everyone.

A lightning suddenly struck Naruto and in the process, shocked his two captors to death this time. The two charred hunter ninjas fell limply across the roof and slid off to the ground.

Naruto however, absorbed the lightning and his body turned into yellow lightning in the shape of a humanoid (Blitz Mode). There weren't any definite markings on his body but except for Naruto's blue eyes, whisker marks and a spiral seal on his stomach (Imagine the Nine Tailed Chakra Mode minus the extra seal markings and facial features, except the eyes, whisker marks and the seal on his stomach). And what's more there seems to be small and thin lightning pillar (Storm Tail) connecting him and to the storm.

Two of the ninjas flashed through their handseals but Naruto was faster and shot out two lightning bolts (Derezzed Shot) at them. The lightning bolt hit them square in the chest, atomizing them and made them explode in a shower of blood and very small human parts.

"What the fuck?" a ninja said after seeing what happened. No lightning technique managed to make someone explode so far.

Naruto wasn't finished and in a roar send his chakra through his Storm Tail and lightning cracked the storm cloud. Hunter Leader knew what was going to happen and immediately grabbed Mei.

Naruto realised this and shot out only 3 Lightning Strike at the remaining ninjas instead of his planned 4. The 3 hunter ninjas convulsed for a moment before their charred corpse hit the ground with a thud.

"Alright, that's enough!" Hunter Leader said as he held Mei hostage with a kunai poised at her throat. "Try to attack me and she gets it!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the ninja but he couldn't do anything. The Hunter Leader was too close to Mei and any lightning attack would hit her too. He was thinking of a way to take him down without hurting Mei when suddenly, she caught his attention.

"Now power down! Power the fuck down!" Hunter Leader commanded but Naruto wasn't paying attention to him, but rather to Mei. Her lips were moving as if saying something...

Naruto wasn't a lip reader but he followed his conscious to interpret her message;

_I trust you_

Naruto doubted about what he thought but Mei's smile and the look that she gave him confirmed it. Her eyes didn't have any fear or hatred that it harboured before this and Naruto returned the smile.

'Let's see who's faster, fucker!'

Naruto then released a large Lightning Strike behind him that caused a bright flash of light over the sky. Hunter Leader stared straight into the flash and his arm that held Mei was involuntarily raised in front of his face to block the bright light.

Naruto took this chance to sever his Storm Tail and leapt forward at Hunter Leader. One of his arms grabbed the hand that held the kunai and brought it away from Mei and the other hand's along with the forearm changed shaped into a sword (Lightning Sword) and speared through the Hunter Leader's mouth.

The result was that the lightning hand speared through his mask and his mouth until it came out from the back of his head. The momentum from Naruto's leap also propelled Hunter Leader and Naruto away from Mei until Naruto landed on his foot a few meters away.

Naruto panted heavily before looking at the speared Hunter Leader on his arm. His mask fall of and Naruto saw something that he will remember for the rest of his life.

The Hunter Leader's eyes were wide in shock and horror, as if seeing the Shinigami himself. Naruto was horrified by this and quickly released the head from his arm and it only served to shock him more.

His mouth were now gone and was replaced with a large cauterized hole. Naruto backed away in fear from what he has done and turned back to see the result of his 'work'.

The charred remains of the ninjas all have the same horrified look on their faces and what's worse; they looked like as if they wanted to scream but couldn't. Maybe it was because the lightning killed them before they could do it or their voice box was destroyed when they were still alive.

And then Naruto realised that he has seen the look before this...

It was when the first mob had assaulted him and he gave in to rage that he used the Kyuubi's chakra for the first time. The look of pure horror on the faces of the mob was the same.

The look that says that he was a demon.

"No, no, no! I'm a demon! A DEMON!" Naruto clenched his head and shook it furiously.

Mei realised this and quickly untie herself using a small amount of lava and head towards Naruto. Naruto saw this and started to back away.

"Stay away, STAY AWAY! I'll hurt you!" Naruto pleaded but Mei continued her march.

"No you won't," Mei said with a smile and held her hand forward to touch him.

Naruto's head was scrambling to think of something to do, something that won't hurt her as he hand inched closer. But he couldn't think of anything.

And so he closed his eyes and wait for the inevitable.

Only to feel the warm touch of Mei's hands caressing his cheek.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes to find that his Blitz Mode has gone and he was in his human form again.

Mei then pulled him in an embrace and hugged him tightly and began to sing softly.

_I had a way then losing it all on my own__  
__I had a heart then but the queen has been overthrown__  
__And I'm not sleeping now the dark is too hard to beat__  
__And I'm not keeping now the strength I need to push me_

_You show the lights that stop me turn to stone__  
__You shine It when I'm alone__  
__And so I tell myself that I'll be strong__  
__And dreaming when they're gone_

_'Cause they're calling, calling, calling me home__  
__Calling, calling, calling home__  
__You show the lights that stop me turn to stone__  
__You shine It when I'm alone_

_Home_

Naruto then began to cry in her arms until the fatigue caught over him lulled him into sleep.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto woke up to weird feeling that he never felt before. It felt that the whole world was swaying for some reason. Then, he felt another feeling that he knew so well.

He immediately got up and found a bucket and released the content of his stomach into it.

He then heard a giggle and looked at the voice weakly. It was Mei.

"First time in a boat, I see?" Mei asked and sat his bed.

"I don't get to go out of my village often," Naruto said and leaned into his bedpost while nursing his stomach.

"I want to say that I'm sorry for everything," Mei started and Naruto looked at her. "I mean, I should have known to treat you better because we're very much the same you know?"

"We were both hated for something that's inside of us...but I let my fear and my suffering cloud my eyes to you," Mei said with a weak smile and Naruto looked at his hands.

"If there's one thing I know from Konoha's people is that when people is suffering, they tend to lick their own wounds and not others. That's what I hate about Konoha's people...well not all of them. But the point is, they thought that they're the only ones that suffered from the Kyuubi's attack. They always told me about the people that they've lost when they beat me, but do they ever ask me my loss?" Naruto said sadly.

"Some said that they lost their parents but they never bothered with mine. Some said that they lost their brothers and sister but I never had them. They at least have the experience of knowing them," Naruto continued and Mei held his hand. Naruto looked at her and saw her smile.

"Thank you, for everything that you did Naruto, you're a hero," Mei said and Naruto cried again. Not many have thanked him for his sacrifice of being the Kyuubi's Host and he felt appreciated.

"Naruto, I want you to know something about me," Mei said and Naruto wiped his tears. "I used to hate my bloodline, you know. I've once thought of how it would be if I didn't have my bloodline. Would it be different? Would I have peace and now hunted down like a vermin? I felt like being inside the body of a demon and I wished that I could trade it with a human's body,"

"And then?" Naruto asked and Mei smiled.

"And then I realised that if did and I joined the people that treated the bloodlines wrongly, then it will not be worth it. I realised that I may have a demon's body, but I have a human's heart. And if being given the choice of having a demon's body but with a human's heart or a demon's heart with human's body; I'll choose the first," Mei smiled and hugged Naruto.

"You may have a body of a demon but your heart is human," Mei said Naruto felt like somebody has just...drained a massive liquid weight inside his heart. Mei then released the hug and kissed him on the cheek, earning a blush from him.

"You know Naruto, you're lucky," Mei said and Naruto raised an eyebrow at her. "You're lightning and you can fly among the clouds, free to go anywhere you wanted to,"

"Well...maybe I want to be grounded this time," Naruto said with a grin and Mei smiled, knowing what he meant and she got up.

"Thanks again Naruto, you've made me lost my fear of thunderstorms," Mei stated.

"Really?" Naruto asked and Mei nodded.

"You made me realised that lightning wasn't so bad. In fact, they're actually 'light' in the darkness of the cloud. Their life might be short, but they're powerful and brighten the sky where the sun couldn't shine. It kinda make me feel that they're actually...'hope'," Mei said with a smile and Naruto returned with an even bigger smile when he understood the meaning.

"But still...don't go outside during a thunderstorm! That's how I got into this situation in the first place!" Naruto stated and Mei chuckled.

"I know that! I still have my common sense, you know," Mei replied and the both of them was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say before Naruto spoke.

"Mei, if we can't find a place that can accept us for what we are...then let's create one, a place where our children doesn't need to worry about their heritage and instead, be proud of them," Naruto asked and Mei grinned.

"Alright," she said before she got out.

Naruto then sighed happily, finally found a place to belong. He was a bit sad that it wasn't his hometown but he wasn't stupid enough to keep staying there when he isn't wanted.

And Mei's words brought a smile to his lips. How could he forget about it?

That there's light in lightning.

Maybe, no...not maybe!

That this power of his was not a curse, but a blessing.

And maybe, Kami wasn't such a dick after all.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **Yeah, Naruto's a bit emo in this chapter but I want to show some character development! Don't worry, he's just emo this chapter.

Now about the other girls in the harem, I don't want too many of them so I'm thinking of either just Kyuubi and Mei or another one.

So the poll I'm going to put will either no for only two girls or yes for three girls. And the choice unfortunately will be limited. Now, choose wisely as this girl will alter the story radically! Now, who is this girl?

Mikoto Uchiha.

That's right. Your choice will determine whether she lives or die in this story during the Uchiha Massacre.

And don't worry; if you guys choose yes, I'll find a way to make the romance work, including the age difference and no, Sasuke won't be a good guy by default. The story will be boring without some Sasuke bashing.

Also, the song that Mei sung in the story is 'Lights' by Ellie Goulding. Give it a try people.

Right, so now Naruto officially has the lightning based bloodline but I don't have the name for it yet. I'm thinking Blitz (yes the same name as the Blitz Mode in the story), but it wasn't Japanese. But if you guys have any other name that's more suitable and cool feel free to tell me. I'll credit you guys of course.

Jutsu's used:

**Lightning Technique: Blitz Mode – **The Blitz Mode will be explained next chapter.

**Lightning Technique: Storm Tail – **Creates a thin pillar of lightning that connects between the caster and a storm cloud. The user then will be able to control the lightning inside the cloud for various purposes such as for attacks or turn it into chakra to be used by the caster instead.

**Lightning Technique: Lightning Strike – **Shoots a lightning bolt at the target from above. Requires a storm cloud above the target and the Storm Tail connection.

**Lightning Technique: Lightning Sword– **The user's hand and forearm changes shape into a blade of lightning that can pierce through target. Can also be used like a normal sword.

**Lightning Technique: Derezzed Shot – **Shoots a highly charged bolt of lightning that atomizes a single human sized target. Larger target might require few more hits or other technique entirely. This skill is very dangerous and should only be used against someone that you really want dead. Requires a large amount of chakra and S-Ranked.


	3. Chapter 2: Snooze and Lose

**Author's Note: **It seems that there's a problem with FFdotNet's polling system as a lot of authors were facing the same problem.

Anyway, regardless of the poll, majority of the readers that responded to me through PM and reviews (thank you very much!) said yes, so she will be in the mix.

For Kyuubi lovers out there, don't worry, she'll get a physical body and not just stuck inside Naruto. I'm still thinking for an explanation on how she will have a body though.

**xNamikazeKyuubix: **Wow, your suggestion is solid! I think I could use the Taifū no me (Eye of the Storm) and Arashi-tai (Storm Body) later on. Your Kaminari kōtei (Lightning Emperor) is nice but a bit long it did gave me an idea to use Raikou which translates to Lightning Lord instead. Still, inspiration credit goes to you.

* * *

**CHAPTER 2: SNOOZE AND LOSE**

**Land of Waves – One month later**

It's been a month ever since Naruto gained his powers or as the rest would call it, bloodline. It was rocky at the start as he was depressed by it and tried to deny it, but ever since he met the Terumi family, he finally came to accept it.

It's like they say; when life gives you lemons, make a lemonade.

Except that he got a dragon fruit!

Dragon fruit was Naruto's favourite fruit by the way. Now what's left is to make a juice out of it.

Anyway, things have finally turned for the better for Naruto; Mei doesn't hate him anymore and the Terumi views him as a family member. Naruto finally, has a family to call his own.

Takeshi and Mai treated him as their son and Naruto treated them as his parents. However, Naruto wasn't adopted though as Naruto insisted on being an Uzumaki. He didn't know why, but maybe it has something to do with Mei...

Speaking of Mei, he has this weird feeling for her, but he doesn't know what it is yet. All he knows was that it was a pleasant feeling. Kyuubi snorted at him for this, mumbling something about 'hormones'.

Speaking of Kyuubi...

_**FLASHBACK – 25 days ago**_

**Mindscape**

"Kyuubi..." Naruto asked the sleeping giant fox. Well, she wasn't really sleeping, just pretending so that Naruto wouldn't disturb her. Kyuubi didn't react at all.

"I know you're not sleeping," Naruto asked and sat on the dried sewer. The sewer was nicer than the last time he was here, the walls are repaired and there's lighting in the forms of various lights on the walls.

Naruto then scratched his chin, thinking for a way to wake the giant up. They say that you should let sleeping giants lie...

Suddenly, he remembered! He met a girl who really really liked cats back then at Konoha. The girl sang a catchy tune related to cats that Kyuubi found to be very annoying.

"NyanNyanNyan, nyAN, NYan, NYAN, nyan, NyaN, Nya-" Naruto sang and immediately Kyuubi's ears perked up.

"**GAH! SHUT UP!"** Kyuubi roared and sent Naruto tumbling backwards. **"Alright, I'm awake! What is it?" **Kyuubi said angrily.

Naruto sat back and grinned. "I knew you weren't sleeping!" Naruto claimed and Kyuubi sighed.

"**What is it kit?"** Kyuubi said tiredly. She knew why the boy was here. She just didn't want to talk about it.

"Thanks, for screaming some sense in me," Naruto said with a smile and Kyuubi shot him a glance before looking away. She never had someone said positive words to her before. Usually it was demands, begging and words of hatred.

Ever since Kyuubi knocked him out of his 'emo' state, Naruto has viewed her in a new light. He now knew that there's good in his tenant.

"**Tch, don't make me regret it,"** Kyuubi replied.

"Sure. Anyway, I'm here to ask you about my body. What happened, exactly? Why I got my powers and why I'm in a 12 year old body?" Naruto asked.

Kyuubi sighed again and sat down. **"This is going to be long. Oh well might as well get it over. The thing is, when that freak lightning hit you, it was destroying your body and at the same time, to save you, I have to keep channelling my chakra into you. So your body were in a constant state of being destroyed and being healed,"**

Naruto crossed his arms, closed his eyes and nodded sagely with grunts of 'Hm, hm' every now and then.

"**Had I kept channelling a steady amount of chakra, chances are, you would survive as human after the lightning strike was over. But...I kind of overdid it at the time, turning you into something else," **Kyuubi stated and look away.

"Ouh, awesome!" Naruto said excitedly and Kyuubi turned to look at him again.

"**Wait, you're not mad?" **Kyuubi asked.

Naruto titled his head at her. "What for?"

"**I could have kept you as a human!" **Kyuubi stated and Naruto shrugged.

"Nah, being human is overrated. Besides, normal is boring," Naruto replied with a grin.

"**So, you've come to terms with it," **Kyuubi said, more of a statement than question and smiled, happy that Naruto wasn't mad at her. **"Alright then, anyway, like I said, I overdid it and made you older, physically and turned you into an Elemental Being. More specifically, a Lighting Elemental,"**

"**The thing is, you could have been a different...kind of something, like a fox demon. But I guess the presence of the lightning added in the equation results in you," **Kyuubi stated.

"Wait, so are you saying that if it weren't lightning, I could have been different?" Naruto said and Kyuubi nodded. "And what's an Elemental Being anyway?"

"**Elemental Beings are a living sentient energy being. They are a collective of energy or element bind by a will or a soul. The thing is, everyone has soul right?" **Kyuubi said and Naruto nodded. **"Most of us have our soul contained within bodies made of flesh. The Elemental Beings however, uses elements as their body and vessel. Most of what you people call 'spirits' and 'gods' are elemental beings"**

"I see! But how does it explain of me having two forms; the lightning and human form?"Naruto asked.

"**The Elemental Beings or Elementals for short has almost complete control over their element. The strongest Elemental's mastery enables them to crystallize or harden their element and vice versa. Essentially, you could do the same and thus, you are able to convert lightning to matter and matter to lightning. But that matter is limited to your flesh for the moment," **Kyuubi explained.

"Woah! Awesome!" Naruto fist pumped to the air.

"**Usually, Elementals preferred their elemental form, but in your case, for some reason, your default form is your human body," **Kyuubi said and Naruto nodded. **"I guess it has something to do with me being sealed inside you..."**

"**Anyway, so it seems that you are able to...'eat' lightning for various benefits like powering you up or healing you. I suspect that you will be able to recover lost limbs if you consume enough lightning and you could be immortal if there's constant lightning around you," **Kyuubi stated again and Naruto's mouth was wide open.

"Double awesome!" Naruto double fist pump this time.

"**It is. Elementals are unstoppable when there are plenty of their elements nearby. However, it is not without its weaknesses," **Kyuubi said. **"For one, do you know why you involuntarily release lightning?"**

Naruto shook his head. "I was about to ask you about that,"

"**Well, to get to that we must first cover a few topics. The first is, what do you know about muscle memory?" **Kyuubi asked and Naruto scratched his head.

"It has to do with practice...I think," Naruto said and Kyuubi nodded.

"**Quite true. Muscle memory is the way of teaching your body about a task through repetition**. **In other words, it is an education for your body.** **For example, try to practice your academy taijutsu now," **Kyuubi ordered and Naruto pointed a finger at himself.

"Now?" Kyuubi nodded and Naruto got up and sluggishly began his taijutsu. He didn't learn much because the teachers didn't bother teaching him. He had to learn by looking from the kids.

As he paced through the steps, he had to remember the steps one by one through his memory.

"**Do you know why you're sluggish?" **Kyuubi asked and Naruto looked away in shame. **"It's not because of you kit," **Naruto perked up at this.** "Everyone starts slow. This is because your mind is telling the body the steps it needs to do,"**

"I see," Naruto nodded and scratched his chin.

"**Overtime with repetition, your body will be able to do the steps without many stimuli from the mind to the point that it becomes a reflex and as natural as breathing or so to say, 'automatic'," **Kyuubi continued.

"**Now, obviously the human body isn't able to instantly cast techniques at a thought," **Kyuubi said. **"You must know, certain animals are able to cast techniques without the use of handseals. This is because these animals like the toads at Mount Myōboku have been able to use chakra longer than humans. Humans are new in the chakra business and thus, their body isn't able to instantly cast techniques with just a thought,"**

Naruto titled his head again. "New? But-"

"**One or two or three hundred and even a thousand years is relatively young to immortals such as Nature, kit," **Kyuubi answered and Naruto 'ouhed'.**"And evolution is slow. Anyway, that's why we need handseals. Handseals is the way of telling your body what technique you wanted to cast,"**

"**Again, overtime with repetition, your body is able to do techniques faster and better to the point that less handseals is required. If you practice long and hard, you can cast techniques that usually require a lot of handseals with only one handseal or none at all!" **Kyuubi said and Naruto looked excited.

"**Now, that covers muscle memory. Let's talk about instincts. Do you know what instincts are?" **Kyuub asked again.

"It's kind of hard to explain..." Naruto scratched his head again and Kyuubi nodded.

"**Instincts are innate behaviour that is automatic and exists inside all of us without learning. For example, take sea turtles. A sea turtle will lay their eggs on a beach and leaves. Their hatchlings then will automatically swim towards the ocean even without any adult turtle to guide them," **Kyuubi stated.

"Oh! You mean like motherly instincts in animals? Like how first time mother cats are able to raise their young so well?" Naruto said and Kyuubi smiled.

"**Exactly. You could also say that talent is another form of instinct. Like when someone said that you have the talent or instinct for killing," **Kyuubi said and Naruto chuckled nervously.

"**Now, instinct is what enables certain animals to cast techniques without the use of handseals like I've said before. In humans, although you can't automatically use techniques, the instincts and talents for certain element is there. This is what you call elemental affinities. An example would be how the blasted Uchiha is able to use fire well because it is in their instinct,"**

"So their ancestor must be an arsonist then?" Naruto asked while scratching his chin.

"**Must be. Now, I've covered the important topics. Can you relate it to your situation?" **Kyuubi asked and Naruto was silent for the moment before his eyes widened.

"Are you saying that I have the instinct to automatically use lightning techniques?" Naruto said and Kyuubi smiled, happy knowing that the boy wasn't too stupid.

"**Correct. You have the lightning instinct inside you," **Kyuubi said. **"You are able to automatically cast lightning without the use of handseals,"**

"**However, this in turn became somewhat of a curse to you. Your body doesn't know when you wanted to cast your lightning techniques. So it uses your emotions as signal instead. When you're angry, your body interpret it as sign that enemies are nearby and began to release lightning," **Kyuubi explained and Naruto 'oohed'.

"**And then finally, what do you know about chakra?" **Kyuubi asked.

"Not much. I don't understand much what the teachers said," Naruto replied and scratched his head.

"**That's not your fault, really. The teachers at Konoha tried their best to hinder you education. Anyway, chakra is an energy that is generated through the mixture of physical and spiritual energy. It is very versatile as it can be shaped and transformed for various purposes," **Kyuubi started to explain.

"**Now, normally, creatures generate normal chakra by default. However, Elemental beings generate chakra based on their nature by default instead. Do you understand?" **Kyuubi asked and Naruto pondered for a moment.

"So are you saying that I generate lightning chakra instead of normal chakra by default?" Naruto said and Kyuubi nodded.

"**Go outside and have them teach you other elemental technique," **Kyuubi ordered and Naruto complied.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Teachmeteachmeateachme-"

"Okay!" Mei sighed. Naruto can be annoying when he wants something. "Watch me, okay?" Naruto nodded and Mei casted a water technique.

"Water Technique: Violent Water Wave!" Mei casted and a large amount of water gushed out from her mouth towards the river for a few seconds before Mei stopped it. "It's a basic technique, so you should be able to do it on the first try,"

Naruto, whose mouth was hanging wide open at the display, closed it and nodded. He then did the same handseal and...

"Water Technique: Violent Water Wave!" and all that came out is a cone of lightning from his mouth. "Eh?" Naruto said after he stopped the technique and Mei raised her visible eyebrow.

"But...but I did the same thing as you did!" Naruto said.

"I know," Mei replied and tapped her chin, thinking.

"_**Do you see kit? Your body interpret it as another form of lightning technique and not water technique. The problem right now is, to override your instinct, and to you're going to need a lot of chakra control exercises," **_Kyuubi stated in his mind.

_**FLASHBACK END**_

So after much brainstorming later, they all came up with a wicked name for his bloodline; the Raikou which translates to Lightning Lord. Which sounds very cool and menacing, although Mei argued that the name could inflate his ego to 'lord' like proportions.

Well, lord sized ego wasn't so bad. At least they didn't go with his suggestion; Raijin which is Thunder God. Then Mei would have something to be very worried about.

Anyway as wonderful his new his powers was, for the moment, it kind of sucked a bit. This is because his body interpret everything that he wanted to do as lightning! This includes normal chakra use such as leaf floating, tree and water walking!

Every time he wanted to flow normal chakra, lightning came out. And so, he couldn't do normal chakra control exercises. What kind of ninja that couldn't walk on trees or water?

Kyuubi stated that he _is_ a being of lightning, thus his default chakra _is _lightning chakra!

And thus he was faced with a weird problem. Normal people had trouble turning their chakra into other types of chakra. He has the opposite problem; turning his lightning chakra into normal chakra.

This also brings the problem of converting it to other types of chakra; it requires one more step. An example would be, for an Uchiha to cast flame techniques; they have to convert their chakra into flame chakra. For Naruto however, he has to convert his lightning chakra into normal chakra then to flame chakra.

That's why he couldn't cast the water technique earlier. It was because he didn't do any of the steps.

And thus, he couldn't do normal chakra control. He has to do an improvised version of it including emotion and mental control.

And let me tell you, an energy being like him that can discharge dangerous lightning bolts at people on a whim requires perfect chakra control to live normally.

And Naruto sucked at it due to his high reserves. It's like trying to get a drop of water out of a hose. Medium chakra control wasn't enough as he still discharged lightning bolts that can knock out an adult off his feet.

Not to mention about emotion and mental control. His new parents recommended meditation but come on! I mean, he's an energy being! Energy! Not to mention lightning! Have you ever seen a frozen lightning before?

Never right? And that's the problem! He's the epitome of movement!

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Mai sighed with a smile. She always wanted another child before. This was because she wanted to have variety, so to say. Mei was the quiet, calm and serious type while Naruto was the loud, active and goofy type. It's always fun to see those two personalities clash.

Well, she got her wish now.

"Stay there and be quiet!" Mei ordered Naruto, trying to get him to meditate. Naruto complied and became quiet, sitting cross legged, hands on his knees and eyes closed.

10 seconds later...one of his opened to spy on Mei who was watching him like a hawk.

"Congratulations. That was 3 seconds longer than last time," Mei said with a sweet voice yet threatening. "Care to try longer?"

Naruto closed his eyes again longer this time. However, his eye muscles then twitched as he was about to open them but Mei raised a finger and said a firm 'NO!' and Naruto cancelled his action.

About 2 minutes later of Naruto managing to keep his eyes closed, Mei sighed. Convinced that he finally got it, she turned around and Naruto immediately rolled on the spot on the ground.

Mei noticed the sounds and immediately turned around and saw Naruto was in his meditating pose again, but he was dirty with blades of grass all over him. Mei raised a sceptical eyebrow and decided to test him and so she turned around again.

Naruto rocked back and forth on his butt and held his legs to balance himself this time and Mei immediately turned around and caught him in the action.

"What are you doing?" Mei asked in her sweet yet threatening voice while Naruto looked at her innocently.

"Meditating," Naruto replied easily.

"Really? Last time I check, that wasn't the standard meditating pose," she shot back and cracked her knuckles threateningly.

"Well my mojo told me to do this," Naruto answered with a cheeky grin and Mei rubbed her temples.

"Alright, fine. It seems that standard operating procedures don't apply to you so we have to do something else," Mei stated. "I know that this is hard for you, considering that you are energy but you must do this to overcome your instincts, you know,"

"I know that but I just can't sit still! It's like I'm on constant sugar rush!" Naruto explained with a pout. Mei tapped her chin, thinking for a moment when suddenly, she got an idea.

Naruto had problems with large bodies of water as his body has large amounts of electricity flowing in him than regular humans have. Contact with bodies of water usually makes his body involuntarily discharge the electricity in his body quickly all over the water that it leaves him drained.

This situation is similar to when a person casted a technique that requires more chakra than what their body can provide, resulting in chakra depletion that, at its worse, can cause death.

Now, the thing is, it is only fatal if he made contact with open and especially, flowing bodies of water. This is because the discharged energy will escaped away from him and thus constantly draining him.

However, if he's in closed bodies of water such as a bathtub, the discharged energy will return back to him. And then escape and return to him again. Nevertheless the constant energy discharge is taxing to him.

The things that can affect him was heavy rain that will constantly drain him of energy, medium to large cup of water that when thrown at him, causes a mild shock, (ironic for someone like him), a bucket of water that knocks him out (for emergency use only!), and obviously water techniques.

Thankfully, Naruto doesn't have this problem with small amount of water on him like a drizzle, light rain, light shower or sponge baths. If not, well, let's not think about it.

So, Mei devised a new type of meditation.

Instead of normal meditation when you just sat and empty your mind, Naruto has to do it with cups of water on his head and hands. If he moves, the cup drops and shocks him.

It was sadistic and painful, yes but like they say; no pain, no gain.

But of course Naruto developed enough fine control that he can move around without spilling the cup! It irked Mei to find him doing the butt rocking again with the cups of water balanced on his forehead and knees!

So instead, he was placed on a wooden board on top of a large somewhat pointy rock in the middle of a small man-or rather Mei made pond near the river. So far, it worked.

Thankfully.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

After 3 months, Naruto finally developed enough fine control again that he was able to rock the wooden platform he was on back and forth, left and right heck and he can do circles without falling into the pond! He then heard a very loud 'smack!' sound and turned around to see Mei, who had just face palmed herself hard.

Naruto grinned and Mei walked away while mumbling about 'new methods', leaving Naruto alone on the river.

Naruto, not having anything to do, carefully got away from the pond when he noticed a girl came out from a bush, carrying a small white rabbit with red eyes.

The girl has to be about his age (mentally), has black hair that was tied in a pigtail, pink eyes and wore a simple yellow dress.

"Hello little girl," Naruto beamed at her. She was wary for a moment before replying with a soft hello of her own. "What's your name?" Naruto asked.

"Nami," Nami told her name.

"Ouh, like this country's name," Naruto nodded. "So what's the rabbit's name?"

"Kamizilla," Nami simply said.

"Ouh, that's a-"Naruto suddenly choked when his brain finally registered the rabbit's name, "_cute _name,"

"I don't want the name to be cute!" Nami pouted. "I want it to be scary!"

'Yeah right, the only thing that will be scary about the rabbit is, if it suddenly has Sharingan,' Naruto thought, noticing the somewhat eerie look the rabbit was giving him with its blood red eyes.

"I mean, cute in a scary way! I said cute so that the great and menacing Kamizilla doesn't eat me!" Naruto said and pretend cowered near the rabbit.

"Nope! Kamizilla is offended and demands sacrifice!" Nami claimed in a somewhat creepy tone and raised 'Kamizilla' above her head.

"Uh-huh..." Naruto nodded nervously.

"GAAAHHH!" Nami then flailed the poor rabbit around and mimicked monster mannerism, as if she was the monster and not her rabbit and Naruto, catching on to what she wanted to do, play the helpless tiny victim.

Ten minutes later, Nami was panting on the ground and her rabbit was a few feet besides her, munching on some foliage while staring at Naruto. Naruto, who didn't have to do much in the pretend play, crouched and stared at the rabbit suspiciously too.

Suddenly, the 'monster' rabbit lunged at him and Naruto, surprised by this sudden action, reacted.

_ZZAAAAPPPP!_

The rabbit exploded in a shower of blood and meaty bits over both of them, causing Nami to go slack jawed and Naruto to released a barely audible 'oops,'

Nami then wailed while Naruto was racking his brain for an excuse as to why he just mercilessly vaporized a pet in front of its master.

And then, he got an idea.

"Warrgh! The lightning monster Naruto finally defeats Kamizilla!" Naruto did his own monster mannerism and flailed around. Nami however, proceeded to pound him continuously.

"You weren't supposed to be the monster! You were supposed to be the tiny victims!" Nami said while continuing her assault.

"Not fair! I want to play the monster too! And you can't expect Kamizilla to win all the time! I know its name got 'Kami' in it but it's boring for it to win everytime!" Naruto shot back while weathering her beatings.

"Do you have to kill him?" Nami stopped her assault and gave Naruto a cold glare to which he chuckled nervously for an answer. Then, he got a brilliant answer.

"I only killed him once! He killed me 43 times already!" Naruto shot back. The numbers were just made up though.

Nami wailed and cried even harder and ran back to the village, leaving Naruto alone with rabbit remains all over him.

"Oh boy, I'm so going to get it, am I?" Naruto said to himself and then he noticed something on the ground.

One of the rabbit's eyeballs was staring at him.

Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine and he prodded the eye so that it would look away. But it rolled back to its original position to stare at him.

"I knew there's something wrong with you!" Naruto said and ran to the village too.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"You vaporized a rabbit?" Mei asked angrily. "What in the world made you do that?"

"She gave it a threatening name! So I assumed that the rabbit was threatening too!" Naruto shot back in defence.

Mei raised a sceptical eyebrow at him. "It helps that the rabbit has long teeth and red eyes. I could have sworn that it was the Sharingan!" Naruto added.

"A Sharingan, on a rabbit?" Mei crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "And how in the world the rabbit got the Sharingan in the first place?" Mei asked and she has a gut feeling that she's going to regret asking the question a little bit.

"I don't know. Maybe those stuck up Uchihas decided to go wild for once and got really drunk that they fucked a rabbit," Naruto replied while scratching the back of his head.

Mai and Takeshi who was nearby, laughed hard while Mei was holding back her laugh.

"That or maybe they're just into bestiality," Naruto added.

"_**And that's a bad thing?" **_Kyuubi asked in his mind.

'I didn't say that it was bad,' Naruto replied.

"What in the world possessed you into thinking that?" Mei asked and again, she should have known better than to ask.

"Because I once met an old guy who claimed that a teenage boy with very colourful Mohawk hair is his son on the basis that he once got so drunk that he fucked a parrot," Naruto easily said and Mai and Takeshi laughed even harder and clutched their sides. Mei was clutching her sides too but managed to suppress her laughter to a minimum.

"If it helps in my defence, I was too engrossed in playing my part as the rival monster," Naruto said and crossed his arms.

Mei was rubbing her temples now. It kind of annoyed her that her parents indulged in Naruto's antics and Mei was the one who has to set him straight.

"Naruto-kun, you just traumatized a kid. How can you be so cruel?" Mei asked in her signature sweet yet threatening voice that promised pain if you don't do what she said.

But of course, Naruto operated on a different logic. People, especially guys usually got scared shitless when she acted like this because she has the means to back it up. Naruto wasn't afraid at all. It's just that he really really liked it when Mei does that voice. That and Naruto was very tolerant to pain so threats of bodily pain doesn't faze him.

Naruto drooled a bit before he snapped back to reality. "Hai! I will make it up to her!" he saluted and immediately left.

Her parents snickered behind her and Mei spun around to face them and pointed a finger to them. "You guys could have helped!"

"It wouldn't be as funny like that," Takeshi said and Mei sighed.

"I swear, Naruto has rubbed on you guys," she said.

"And that's a bad thing?" Mai smiled.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, ah ha!" Naruto said and dove into a bush. A wriggling bush and a few moments later, Naruto came out with a black rabbit with red eyes in hand.

Naruto then eyed the rabbit for anything weird when he noticed the same red eyes and he eyed the rabbit suspiciously. "You're not Kamizilla's brother are you?" Naruto asked and as expected received no reply.

"Oh well," Naruto shrugged and held the rabbit high to the air. "Now let's go and meet your new master!"

A few moments later, Nami came to the river to bury her fallen Kamizilla and met with Naruto, who was having a staring contest with the rabbit.

Naruto noticed her and turned to face her. "Oh hey!" Naruto beamed and waved the black rabbit in front of him. Name eyed him suspiciously but once her eyes laid on the rabbit, she was sold.

Still, Nami was a tsundere and she won't give in easily.

"What do you want?" Nami crossed her arms.

"I want to make it up to you! Here, I got you a new rabbit!" Naruto said and hand her the rabbit but she refused to take it, yet.

"Don't want to! If it comes from you, it must be weak and can't stand up to Kamizilla!" Nami said.

"Ah, and how would you know that?" Naruto asked and Nami looked flustered to find an answer.

"Well you should know, this is Kamizilla's brother, Godzilla!" Naruto claimed and held the rabbit high to the air.

"He's brother, how would you know that?" Nami asked.

"Well, I found him nearby the spot where Kamizilla...was defeated," Naruto said and Nami glared at him. "Anyway! Godzilla is Kamizilla's older brother, the type of brother that bullies yet loves his little brother...and I'm sure he would like to avenge Kamizilla!"

"Aaauuuww," Nami's eyes went puppy eyed at the story, somewhat touched by it. However, she immediately steeled herself, crossed her arms and looked away. "No!"

'Damn this girl is a hard sell!' Naruto thought.

"Are you sure you don't want him? He is probably the most badass rabbit in town! None can match his fluffiness power level!" Naruto claimed and Nami perked up at this.

"Fluffiness power level?" Nami said with interest.

"Yes! Godzilla's power level is over nine thousaaaand!" Naruto said excitedly at the last part and held the rabbit high again. Nami was doing calculations in her mind about the large number. She's only 6 and only learnt numbers up to 100. But still, she was a smart girl and knew that 9000 is a very big number.

"Fine!" Nami said and Naruto handed her the rabbit with a grin. "But as compensation, you will let Godzilla avenge Kamizilla!"

"Uhh...fine?" Naruto said nervously.

A few moments later...

"Aarrgghh! It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" Naruto said and turned around a few times and dropped to the forest floor with his tongue out.

"Yay!" Nami jumped around a few times and sat on the floor, releasing Godzilla in the process. Godzilla then hopped on Naruto's chest and glared at him.

"Hm?" Naruto said and looked at the somewhat menacing rabbit.

_CHOMP!_

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

It has been a few days after his incident with little Nami and her blasted pet rabbit. It seemed that Godzilla is Kamizillia's brother after all as he enacted his revenge on Naruto by biting him on the nose.

Needless to say, Nami was very happy at seeing her rabbit turned carnivore on him.

Anyway, his control of his element has definitely improved, not much but still an improvement. Another thing that bugged him was how hard it was for him to change into his lightning form or as he named it; Blitz Mode. It helped to have awesome names for your techniques.

He didn't know how exactly turn into Blitz Mode, as he can't change at a thought. He tried to command his body to change but to no avail. It seems that a different kind of trigger is needed.

The last two times he changed was when he got struck by lightning. Kyuubi speculated that either it required him to channel a large amount of lightning chakra to his whole body or that it really required a lightning strike.

If the only way was the latter, then it would have sucked big time to keep waiting for a thunderstorm to come and hit him.

"_**Try and channel your lightning chakra all over your body," **_Kyuubi suggested.

"Urm...how exactly to do that? I can't even do tree walking yet," Naruto said.

"_**Oh yeah, I forgot about that," **_Kyuubi replied and Naruto sweat dropped. She has been living inside him for years and she forgot? Sometimes he wondered what she was doing inside him.

"_**Well, looks like we have to make people zap you then," **_Kyuubi said and Naruto nodded. _**"Still, are you sure about this? The first time you sneezed in that form, you kind of teleported quite far,"**_

"Well, I have to make sure I don't sneeze then," Naruto smirked and Kyuubi grunted in reply.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto was very lucky the next day. It turns out that a Genin team from Kumo was in Wave. They were doing a C-Ranked mission of escorting a Kumo merchant.

"So what are you guys doing?" Naruto asked the three Kumo Genin team in front of him and all of them was at Naruto's training spot. The Genin teams were composed of a busty blonde girl, dark skinned red headed girl and a dark skinned white haired boy who was sucking on a lollipop.

The three stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to him. They were practicing ninjutsus before as per Killer Bee's instructions while he guards the client. While the three of them felt a bit bad for leaving the client alone with Killer Bee, they were glad nonetheless to get some quiet time from Killer Bee's rapping.

Samui, the busty blonde girl eyed Naruto for a moment before deciding that he was just a civilian. "Training, that's all," she said while rubbing the back of her neck.

"Oohh! Don't mind me! Just continue with your training like I'm not here!" Naruto said excitedly. They were blasting lightning techniques just now and he wanted to see if he could get hit by one, 'accidently' of course.

"What? Why would we do that?" the red headed girl, Karui pointed at him. "For all we know, you could be a spy!"

"If I admit I'm not a spy, would you think otherwise?" Naruto asked and before Samui could say anything, Omoi answered.

"I see," Omoi rubbed his chin. "You're trying to trick us, aren't you? You're trying to say that you're a spy so that we would dismiss that claim as no spy would reveal himself and then in the end, you really were a spy who managed to trick us and then backstab us and-"

Samui sighed. She seemed to do that a lot recently. "You're over exaggerating again Omoi. He's just a curios kid, that's all,"

"That's right! So can you perform that technique you did back then? It was awesome! Can I see it again? Please, please, please?" Naruto pleaded with puppy eyes.

"No way! It's forbidden for ninjas to reveal their techniques to civilians when not in battle!" Karui stated.

"Auww, just this once, please?" Naruto pleaded again and Samui and Omoi shook their heads.

"Sorry kid, no can do," Omoi said.

Naruto deflated a bit but sprang back up almost immediately. "Then I have to keep pestering you until you give in!"

"Pshh, we're ninjas kid, we're trained to never give up!" Karui huffed at him and claimed proudly.

An hour later...

"Let me kill him!" Karui said loudly while she and the rest were huddled together with their hands over their ears.

"You can't hurt a civilian!" Omoi said loudly so that his teammates could hear him.

"Unless he attacked us first! And he's attacking my patience!" Karui replied.

"NyanNyanNyan, nyAN, NYan, NYAN, nyan, NyaN, Nya-" Naruto sang in front of them happily. At first, the group especially Samui found the song to be cute. However, repetition tended to be annoying and Naruto repeated the song non-stop and he doesn't even stop to breathe!

They tried to wait for him to tire himself but it's been an hour already! It was ridiculous! Even Killer Bee's rap karaoke wasn't this long!

They tried to make him stop but they couldn't hurt him lest they hurt their reputations with the locals.

"Please, make him stop!" Samui begged.

"Kami! I never thought that someone else more annoying than sensei could have ever existed!" Karui said.

"Tell me about it! I thought training with sensei would give us immunity over annoying things!" Omoi replied back.

Suddenly, Naruto stopped, much to the Genin's relief.

"Thank-" Karui was about to say when Naruto interrupt her.

"Oh? Your sensei sounds like a fun guy! Maybe I should meet him instead," Naruto said while rubbing his chin as if in thought.

The Genin team felt a very horrifying feeling fell over them when the truth sunk in.

What would happen if two very annoying people meets?

Surely the world would end?

"Okay fine! We'll show you, once! Just once!" Samui exploded and this shocked her teammates. It was very hard to make Samui mad as she's the 'coolest' person in the group.

Naruto beamed with a very large smile.

"But Samui! What happened if your lightning technique suddenly hit him? And then if he dies, we will be held responsible and our ninja career would be over! And then we would have to work as jani-" Omoi said.

"I don't care! Samui, show him!" Karui said and Samui nodded and got up.

"Alright, Naruto, now watch closely. I'll show this to you just once," Samui said and Naruto nodded. "Give me some space; this is going to be dangerous,"

Naruto and the rest backed away and went behind her and Samui began flashing her handseals towards a clearing.

"Lightning Technique: Lightning Ball!" Samui chanted and held her left palm out while her right hand holds her left arm, as if bracing it. A basketball sized ball made of lightning then appeared and shot out in front of Samui.

Then it curved back towards Naruto.

"What the fu-" Omoi couldn't finish as the ball struck Naruto squarely on the chest and exploded in a small lightning burst that blinded the area with a bright flash for a moment.

When the flash was gone, so was Naruto. After seeing what happened, Samui's legs went limp and she dropped to the ground lifelessly. Omoi's mouth was hanging wide open that his lollipop fell from his mouth to the ground. Karui was hysterical and was grabbing her head and dropped to her knees.

"Kami! What the fuck happen?" Karui asked.

"I...I don't know! I didn't direct the Lightning Ball to him at all! I just aimed it straight! Why did it curve?" Samui defended herself while staring at the sky.

"Oh Kami, I told you guys what would happen! Now for once, my exaggeration was right! Oh man, oh man, oh man! I didn't believe it at first when they say that first time C-Ranked missions were cursed!" Omoi said.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Somewhere else**

A lightning strike hit the ground and a lightning entity appeared and from the looks of it, it was sitting on the ground.

'What happened?' Naruto mentally asked his tenant.

"_**It seems that you are able to attract lightning to yourself. A neat feature when fighting against enemies but not so much when around allies,"**_Kyuubi explained and Naruto nodded. _**"And you sneezed again, didn't you?"**_

'I can't help it, okay? I smelled something weird when that lightning ball hit me. I think it was the smell of my burnt clothes,' Naruto replied. 'Speaking of which,'

Naruto got up and was about to examine himself when his Blitz Mode was over and he was in his human form again.

"What? That was too quick!" Naruto said and realised that he was again, naked. He then turned around to find anything to cover himself when he saw an effeminate boy looking at him with his mouth open and a horrified look on his face.

"Ermm..." Naruto tried to stall while trying to think for an excuse as to why he was naked.

"_**You're not using the 'naked beach' excuse again are you?" **_Kyuubi asked. _**"It didn't work last time,"**_

'Who know's, it'll work this time?' Naruto mentally replied and Kyuubi was about to speak when Naruto spoke first.

"Do you believe me when I say that I was from a nude beach?" Naruto asked and the boy, mouth still wide open, nodded slowly.

'Hah! He believes me!' Naruto thought with a grin and Kyuubi groaned in response.

"_**Congratulations kit, you managed to traumatize a girl, three Genins and a boy in less than a week. I'm so proud of you," **_Kyuubi said with sarcasm.

'Thank you. I'm proud of myself too!' Naruto beamed which terrified the boy and caused Kyuubi to groan again.

* * *

**Omake**

**UsagiNin Adventures! Part 1**

Nami hopped happily into her house's yard and went to the rabbit's pen and placed her new rabbit into it.

"Now stay here, I'm going inside to get you some food, 'kay?" Nami cheerfully said and went inside.

"_KAMIZILLAAA! WHY MUST YOU DIE!" _Godzilla said. Of course, to a human, what Godzilla said was just a screech.

"_But do not worry my brother! I will avenge you! In fact, I've already began my revenge! Yes, I can already taste your killer's blood in my mouth- which tastes bad by the way," _Godzilla began grooming the area around his mouth to clear Naruto's blood from the fur.

"_Also! I will avenge you grandmother! Avenge you who were taken away from the Uchiha as their rightful pet! Soon I will return to them and serve as their glorious pet once again! Muahahaha!" _Godzilla said and jumped around maniacally.

"_And do not cry for me my brother! For your death has empowered my Sharingan to the next level! Behold, the Mangekyo Sharingan!" _Godzilla said and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them back to reveal a Sharingan but with two bars extending from the pupil horizontally (like Izuna Uchiha's Mangekyo but two instead of three bars.) making them looked like a minus sign. A minus Sharingan?

"_Muahaha! Yes! I shall use this power against our enemies! But first...how do I get out of this stupid island?" _Godzilla stopped jumping and scratched the back of his ear.

"Godzi-chan! Food has arrived!" Nami who has appeared with a tray of vegetables said.

"_Godzi-chan? Don't make me use my Mangekyo against you, you little-oh hey, carrots!" _Godzilla said and deactivated his Sharingan and hopped towards Nami.

"_Aw what the heck. Revenge can wait," _Godzi said and began munching on a carrot stick.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **I'll give you an imaginary pop tart if you can guess what catty tune that Naruto sang to woke up Kyuubi and annoy the Genins from Kumo.

Anyway, somewhat a filler chapter but it was needed for me to explain the basis of Naruto's bloodline. As you can see, although his bloodline is very powerful, it is not the end-all bloodline and godlike. It has its ups and downs that the user needs to overcome. However, with enough training, practice, exercises, patience and imagination, it can be godlike. It just depends on the user.

So for those of you who wanted to re-read the explanation for the bloodline, I've put it below for your convenience. Again, credits goes to xNamikazeKyuubix for the inspiration for the name.

Oh and Mikoto won't appear yet until after next chapter I'm afraid.

Infos:

**Elemetal Beings or Elementals – **Elementals are a living sentient entity made of energy or elements. They are a collective of specific energy or element bind by a soul. Most creatures such as humans, animals and so on, use bodies made from flesh as their vessel. However, an Elemental uses the elements as their vessel.

Elemental Beings are very strong when their element is plenty around and they can live for indefinite amount of time for as long as they have the sufficient element nearby.

Their greatest feat, however, is the conversion of their element to matter and vice versa, however, the type of matter that can be converted is limited but the crystallized matter behaves like a real matter such as a crystallized flesh is indeed a real flesh.

However, the biggest disadvantage that comes with being an Elemental is that the chakra generated is elemental chakra by default based on the Elemental's nature, thus limiting their arsenal to their elements and almost every Elemental in their life uses only their native element.

An Elemental Being can be killed by dispersing the elements that made their bodies by using its opposite element. For example; a Fire Elemental can be killed by water.

Most of the spirits and gods are Elemental Beings.

**Bloodline: Raikou (Lightning Lord) – **A bloodline that turns the user into a living sentient energy being made of lightning; a Lightning Elemental. It grants unmatched control and benefits over lightning and electricity that is not available to non Raikou bloodline users.

The benefits of the Raikou bloodline are that first, the user is immune to all forms of lightning and electricity and are able to 'eat' it to empower and heal themselves.

The second benefit is that it grants electro kinesis and electromagnetism to the user, enabling the control of lightning and electricity around the user. The electro kinesis allows total control of lightning and electricity to the point of being able to redirect lightning attacks by the enemy towards the user to absorb it. The user also can use the electricity for various purposes other than offense. The human body uses electric impulses for variety of purposes such as to send information, move the muscles and so on. Thus the user can manipulate these electrical impulses such as reading the human brain, moving the muscles, stop or restart the heart and so on.

However, the greatest feat is the 'crystallization' of lightning and electricity. This is what allows Naruto to change into his human body in the first place. And the amazing thing is that the crystallized lightning behaves like a real matter such as Naruto's flesh is indeed, real human flesh.

Electromagnetism allows generation of magnetic field to affect metallic objects, though Naruto hasn't realise this powers yet.

The third benefit is that it allows the user to change into the Elemental Form, or as Naruto named his version, the Blitz Mode in which it turns the user's human body to a body made of lightning energy. The advantage of this form is that it allows feats that a human body cannot replicate such as movement at high speeds and the manipulation of forms such as changing limbs into weapons and so on. The user also can reside in objects that can channel electricity such as metal.

In this form, physical attacks aren't recommended as the attacker is more likely to electrocute themselves. However, attacks laced with insulators and wind can hit and damage the user. Also, wind based attacks is much more effective against the user in this form.

The user also isn't recommended to get in contact with large and especially flowing bodies of water like a river. An Elemental is a collective of specific element bind by a will or soul and the dispersal of this element can kill the elemental. In this case, should a lightning elemental touch water; the collective electricity will involuntarily escape, weakening the elemental. It is like having your arms and legs ripped off in a grinder. This can be negated in flowing water by having the user 'ride' the flow of the water instead of staying still or ultimately, if the user's will is strong enough to bind the electricity together and prevent their escape.

However, in closed bodies of water such as a bathtub, the effect isn't fatal as the electricity will flow back to the user but it still is taxing. It is like having your arms and legs ripped off, stitched back and ripped off again.

Small amounts of water such as light rain, shower and so on doesn't affect the user much.

The biggest disadvantage to the user of this bloodline is they will have trouble learning other elements as the chakra generated is lightning chakra by default and not normal chakra. This makes it hard to use other elemental techniques.

**Lightning Release: Lightning Ball – **The user creates a ball of lightning and shoots it at the target. The ball can be controlled midflight and it will zap any foe that is close enough with lightning. Once it hits the target or if the user wills it, the ball will explode in a burst of lightning, damaging nearby enemies.


	4. Chapter 3: Escape

**Author's Note: **Hello my dear readers! It has been a while, isn't it? First things first, I'm really sorry for the lack of update for almost a month. I've been really busy. First with my education, and after that is done, with my friends who had nonstop activities planned.

I'm on my break now, but don't expect super fast update since I have to get a job. But I'll try my best to update as soon and as well as I can.

And as for the answer to the name of the song, dun dun dun...it's Nyan Cat! Did you guys know that there's a Nyan Cat progress bar for Windows? Complete with song? I have it! It was the best thing since...Nyan Cat...But it kind of takes over other program's progress bar too like IDM's. I tried to download a 2 hour file and...fortunately you can make program exceptions.

**Some-Good-Names-Were-Taken: **As far as I know, energy cannot be created and destroyed, only converted. To kill elementals you have to use their opposite element to change it to another form and break their hold over it. It's like this; human soul resides in fleshy body while an elemental soul resides in elemental bodies. You destroy the human body, it will not be able to sustain the soul and dies. The same applies to elementals, change their elemental bodies to something else, which cannot sustain their elemental specific soul and it will yes, fighting an elemental until they ran out of 'juice' is one of the many ways to defeat them.

**hello2000****: **I got my inspiration from a lot of things and yes, inFamous being one of them and Fairy Tail too. But I will make my Bloodline more original. How? You will have to wait and read.

**Eion1231: **Thanks for the tips. Negima is a great story and I'm following it. It is one of the best harem stories yet as the male wasn't so pathetically weak (I'm looking at you Sekirei!). Expect some of Negi's skill later in this story ;)

**Yami Kurushimi: **I intended to do that. It's Naruto's character and personality in this story. Besides, he's lightning incarnate! A massive surge of energy! You don't expect for Naruto to just sit around and doing nothing do you? Besides, he's only a kid for the moment, he kind of deserved it. Later on he will be less goofy but it will still be there.

Sorry for the rather lengthy AN but, Naruto the Living Storm is my first story to reach 100 reviews! Kinda funny that the omake contributed a lot! So looks like I have to put more of it, eh?

Alright, on to the story, but be warned, this chapter's action will have gore in them.

* * *

**CHAPTER 3: ESCAPE**

**Kirigakure **

Momochi Zabuza was not having a good day. Actually, he rarely has any good days. Heck, he could count with his fingers about his good days. Anyway, this day was different from the rest of his not so good day.

Why?

Because he failed to assassinate the Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura, that's why. It was bad enough that his target was a Kage level ninja, he was also a psychopath that commited genocide and the current Host for the Three Tailed Turtle Beast. And Yagura's younger than him too.

Now, most people would say that trying to kill a Kage who was a psychopath and also a Host was a stupid and insane idea. Well, those people were stupid. There were many ways to end a life and not just fighting directly until your target drops dead.

No, even the strong can fall to the unexpected, the unknown or simply put, assassination. And although Zabuza carries a very large sword, he was quite capable of assassination just as he was capable of fighting head on.

But it seems that Yagura was very paranoid. Well, you get that when you're a psychopath and a mass murderer. Anyway, the thing is, Zabuza managed to kill Yagura...only that it wasn't Yagura.

He managed to get the bastard's head rolling to the table and to the floor...only to find that it wasn't Yagura's head. But rather some...white skinned creepy looking freak with only an eye on one side of his face and...'it' had a smile even though he just got decapitated.

And then the shit hits the fan. Yagura appeared from the shadows and Zabuza didn't waste any time and ran away from him. No way could he fight Yagura head on and he's not going down fighting either if it kills him. Don't be mistaken, Zabuza was not a coward; the assassination attempt was proof. But he was not stupid either. He wasn't like those 'heroic' guys who still fight even though it was clear that they aren't going to win. If you're dead but your enemy's not, then your death was useless. Better to ran away and come back later with a vengeance, than die and let someone else finish your sloppy work.

Anyway, Yagura didn't bother chasing him, which was a relief. Yagura probably thought that he wasn't worth the time and send his minions instead. Arrogant bastard. That will bite you back in the ass, Zabuza promised you that!

But that was for later as vengeance can wait. For now, he needs to get the hell out of this country.

"What do we do now boss?" Meizu asked Zabuza. Meizu, along with his brother, Gozu, were loyal followers of Zabuza and had been part of his coup, along with other Kirinin.

"Plan B; escape," Zabuza replied.

"What about the rest boss? Yagura's gonna get even more paranoid and going to do some office cleaning for possible traitors," Gozu asked.

"Don't worry, all of them knew what they were into, regardless of the outcome. I've already ordered for the likely suspects for treason to get out of Kiri like us, while the rest to stay low and provide me with intel," Zabuza answered.

"But what if they got caught and they blab?" Gozu asked again.

Zabuza sighed at this. "Even if they do, there's not much that they can do anyway as we'll be out of here soon,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Haku's life was a mess! A wreck! A disaster!

Why?

Well, she found out a few years ago that she has a unique power; the ability to make ice. For a girl like her of 9 years old, that was awesome, but not so to her parents. Her mother scolded her for it and her father...decided to kill her.

She didn't understand why at first but later she found out that in Kiri, having unique abilities or Bloodline as it was called, was something to be feared of and to be destroyed.

Her father's fear, it seemed, was greater than his love.

He didn't know at first that his wife carried a Bloodline as she never used it in front of him. But the truth came out when Haku first discovered her Bloodline and though her mother forbids her to use it again for fear of being discovered, it was too late. Her father saw it and in his fear, brought a mob to kill his wife and daughter.

Her mother tried to stop him with the hope that their love was greater than his fear. But it wasn't enough. He struck her down with tears in his eyes and was about to do the same to Haku. But Haku, in a moment of great emotional distress, used her powers to kill her father and the mob.

And then she understood, why her powers were feared and she didn't use it ever since. For few days since her first kill, she wandered alone, with nowhere or no one to go to. Then, someone took her in.

Ozu, was a tall man in his thirties with short brown hair, green eyes and a handsome face. His clothing however, was average; not too shabby like a beggar and not too high classed like an elite.

Ozu was the owner of the Floating Hope Kiri orphanage. During the civil war, a lot of people died and most of those people were parents, leaving their children alone to the mercy of the cruel world. Being an orphan in wartime isn't easy, more so when Kiri didn't care much about orphans.

This is because feeding and protecting the orphans could take a lot of resources that could go to their ninjas. An even if you weren't a ninja, a lot of civilians couldn't afford to take care of children with growing needs when they themselves need food to last the next day.

Added to the fact that most of the orphans tend to have Bloodlines and anyone who caught sheltering a Bloodline orphan were bound to be punished severely, even if they didn't know that the child had any Bloodline. So the adults, on the chance that the orphans that they took in would have a Bloodline, figured that they shouldn't give a damn about the orphans at all.

And so, the orphans were left to themselves. Majority of the orphans would die, while the survivors would grow...unbalanced. It was no wonder that Kiri has one of the 'bloodiest' ninja of all elemental nations with extremely selfish survivor mindset. The 'survival of the fittest', the 'dog eat dog world', and 'every man for himself' kind of mindset.

However, Ozu established the Floating Hope Kiri orphanage and took almost every child on the street. An admirable endeavour because orphanages often tend to get investigated for Bloodline children. In Kiri, children in orphanages have a higher rate of being taken away by ninjas instead of potential parents.

Ozu however, wasn't a good person. He's not a rich guy so there's no way he could support a large number of children in a warring village. So he put the children to work and those works varies; from begging, stealing, prostitution and human trafficking. The children didn't have any choice; it was either him or starve to death.

Haku currently was assigned the job of begging. It was the 'safest' work in the orphanage so far, better than stealing. If you caught stealing from a ninja, don't expect any mercy and Ozu will disown you. Not like there's any difference from begging anyway. The people that they begged from didn't have much anyway and wasn't willing to part with it and didn't want to give what they have. Beggars tend to be persistent and that tend to get you hit.

And Haku just now was roughly shoved to the ground after persistently begging from a woman. She didn't get up from the ground as she was too tired from lack of food. Ozu didn't give them much to eat, just scraps enough to live for the next day but not enough for their growing needs.

She bit her lip, while mentally cursing her fate because of her ability. 'If only...if only I didn't have this Bloodline! Mother and...father would have lived and we would be happy,' Haku thought bitterly.

She wanted to cry, but her tears had already dried. Sometimes she wondered why the heck she is even alive. She's seen it before, some of the orphans just...stopped doing anything, even to eat or drink. They just sleep and never wake up. Maybe, she should do the same. That way, maybe she could see her mother again.

Haku then closed her eyes slowly, wanting to rest and woke up, hopefully to a better place. Suddenly...

CRACK!

Haku bolted awake in surprise at the loud sound in front of her. She got up to her feet, ready to run away when she saw...a naked boy sitting on the ground.

What was strange was that his body was unnatural. It seemed as if it was made from yellow lightning and crackled with energy. The boy got up, turned his head left and right and then, his body turned to a normal human body, and not a single thread on him.

"What? That was too quick!" the boy said and realised that he was naked, turned around to face her. The boy seemed to be 12 years old, with yellow blonde hair, the same colour of his lightning colour before with blue eyes and whisker marks on his cheek. The boy was currently, the most remarkable person she met in her short life.

"Ermm..." the boy said. "Do you believe me when I say that I was from a nude beach?"

Haku wanted to say no, but feared his wrath and nodded slowly and the boy grinned and then beamed, which terrified her.

'Oh Kami! What the hell is he? A Bloodline user'? Haku thought.

"So...you have anything for me to wear?" the boy said and Haku shook her head.

"Bummer," Naruto scratched his head. "The name's Naruto and you are?"

"H-Haku," Haku said weakly.

"So Haku," Naruto looked around to assess his surroundings. It seems that he was in a somewhat deserted part of a town, an alley, as there's only him and her at the moment. "Where are we?"

"Kirigakure," Haku simply said and Naruto stopped what he was doing with a horrified look on his face.

"Kiri? As in Bloody Mist Kiri?" Naruto said slowly and Haku nodded slowly too. "Oh Kami! Of the entire place in the world, you sent me to the worst place!" Naruto shook his fist to the sky. Naruto then sighed and dropped his fist shaking. "Now I need to get out of here. Maybe I can get someone to zap me and sneeze again?"

Haku tilted her head at that. Get out of here? Maybe...just maybe, he could take her with him too?

"Can...can I follow you?" Haku said and Naruto turned to look at her in which Haku looked away. The first thing she learned about the world is that the strong hated when the weak looked them straight in the eye. It was a challenge.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. I mean, I will turn to pure lightning and you will get zapped horribly," Naruto said and Haku deflated.

"Oh," Haku simply replied. She knew it was too good to be true. Naruto saw her reaction and his face turned sour and clenched his fist.

Naruto was not oblivious to pain and suffering, especially when that suffering was identical to his. He knew that Haku has pretty much been through the same hell as he has, and probably even worse, judging from her condition.

Back then, even through his worst, he had people that cared for him, even if it was very few.

Naruto could easily get away from here. Just get someone to zap him with lightning and sneeze again. Okay, that plan would be harder than it seems as he wasn't sure which ninja has lightning ability and that is even if said ninja would use lightning against him.

But that would mean only he would escape and he would leave Haku here alone.

He could do that, but that would mean he would be no different from the villagers of Konoha. The people that only thought of their own pain, their own wounds and their own suffering instead of other people's.

No! He promised himself that he won't be like them! He promised Mei that they would create a better place and to do that, you have to start with the people.

"Hey," Naruto softly said and Haku looked at him in the eye for a moment before looking away again. "I want to get away from here, but not alone," Naruto said and Haku looked him squarely in the eyes again, this time with hope.

"Re-ally?" Haku croaked. Naruto beamed and flashed her a toothy grin.

"Of course! That I promise you! But I'm going to need some clothing though," Naruto said while scratching the back of his head.

Haku nodded at this. "I-I'll get you some," she said and turned away to get him some clothing.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Chojuro's day has just gotten worse. It didn't help that he has little confidence with people, well actually, living being oppressed by adults tend to crush your confidence. But maybe that's just him. He saw some other kids grew balls of steel to survive.

Anyway, he was just doing what orphan kids living under Ozu would do, begging for scraps. But his target wasn't very kind as he was backhanded, sending him tumbling to the ground and his glasses thrown to the floor.

Chojuro, after a minute of nursing his sore cheek, stumbled around for his glasses. He found them, and to his dismay, it was cracked. He put it on nevertheless as he was blind as a bat without it.

Great, now his vision was like of a fly. Multiple images and all that shit.

"Chojuro!" Chojuro heard someone calling him and turned to face the source of the voice.

"H-haku!" Chojuro said and corrected his cracked glasses. Poor Chojuro, the 7 year old boy has poor eyesight and the glasses didn't help much but that didn't change the fact that he was a kind hearted boy. Probably the kindest boy she has ever met. "What is it?"

"Do you have clothing for a 12 year old boy?" Haku asked and Chojuro raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's for someone I met and he said he could get me out of here!" Haku said and Chojuro looked shocked at this. "But don't worry, I'm sure there's room for one more!"

"I-I'm not sure Haku...how is he going to that?" Chojuro asked. Even though he looked weak, he wasn't stupid. He knew that desperate people was easily fooled by the smallest glint of hope, even if that hope turned out to be false.

Haku suddenly deflated when the question struck her. She didn't give it much of a thought on how Naruto was going to get them out of Kirigakure. He was only a boy, what can he do? Besides, can Naruto be trusted? For all she knew, Naruto might be a scout for another Ozu. Another child slaver.

But what else is there for her? Either she tried to make a difference to her life or...

"I wanted to try...I mean, what do I have to lose? Nothing," Haku said softly and Chojuro looked sad at this. It was true, they didn't have much, aside from each other. "I don't want to live like this anymore Chojuro, I-"

"I understand, wait here," Chojuro said with a small smile and head off to another direction, leaving Haku with a smile of her own.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Ozu was having a good day. Oh yes he was. You see, his business was pretty much booming and was flooding him with lots and lots of profit.

You see, his business involved a lot of orphans and those orphans are treasure pots of gold for him. Why? Well, it was simple really.

Free labour. You usually have to pay adults for their services but these kids, just give them food, some place to live and clothing. You don't need much anyway. Cheap clothes or rags, run down shelter and _some _food that won't kill them from starvation.

Usually, he would make the kids beg for some cash from the civilians but that won't do much, as the civilians were cheapskates. So he would make them do other work, usually at the manufacturing shops for the underage and when the girls have reached..._suitable _age, prostitution.

But of course, the most profitable of his business would be selling Bloodline children to the highest bidder. Seriously, Kiri was the stupidest ninja village in the world. Almost every village wanted to have Bloodlines, but Kiri? They kill them like they were infected cattle or something.

It was understandable to fear power but at least not the level of rejecting them completely. It was like fearing fire because it can destroy and refuse to use it and even put it out when the rest of the world was using it. One day, you will be left behind and consumed by that fire you hated very much.

From the way things were going, Kiri will be the weakest ninja village in the world.

Still, their loss was his gain. Kiri might not want their Bloodlines, but others wanted them, like Kumo for example. Heh, Kumo was his regular customers.

Ozu has been collecting children with Bloodlines and selling them to Kumo for tons of cash. Kumo wasn't stingy for Bloodlines because they know it will benefit them in the end, unlike Kiri.

But of course, he had to do his business quietly because if Kiri knew what he was doing, his head will roll on the floor, without his body. He usually gave Bloodline children a drug that suppresses chakra for an amount of time so to avoid detection from Kiri Hunter Ninjas.

Usually, to detect whether someone has any Bloodline or not, you could either use the chakra cards to check for elemental affinities or check their blood. Chakra card was useless if they couldn't use chakra and expensive while blood checking takes a freaking lot of time and resources that Kiri ninja wasn't willing to spend on.

Lucky for him.

Anyway, today another 'merchant' was coming to buy his 'stuff' and he must get ready.

Today on top of the list is...Haku Yuki.

Shame, a few more years and she will make a wonderful prostitute.

Now where was she?

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Nao, a man in his late twenties with crew cut blonde hair and black eyes was going to have a good day! He had just won a large sum from a lottery and now, he's going to get more!

How he's going to do it, you say? Well simple. He's going to...trade items of value.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Nao's partner, Susumu asked. Susumu, his junior, was a short man with muscular build and has shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes weren't the bravest person, despite his body.

Nao sighed. "Yes, it will work! Just have some faith man!"

Susumu still has his doubts, however. "We came at the worst possible time! All of a sudden the security at the dock tripled! Something must have happened here,"

Nao then pulled Susumu into an abandoned alley.

"A lot of things happen here. This place is in a war, remember? Kiri is like a landmine compared to other places. Relax, I've bribed the dock guards well enough," Nao said, trying to ease his cowardly partner.

Susumu narrowed his eyes at him. "Tell me the truth," he ordered. Susumu might not be a genius, but he wasn't all brawn and muscles.

Nao raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You're a gambler and you've just got a massive jackpot and suddenly you decided to spend all of your money doing something good?" Susumu said. "You're an asshole and a jerk. Your definition of Good is very different from mine,"

"Can't I do good fo–" Nao was about to feign innocence when Susumu grabbed his collar and raised him off his feet.

"You're risking mine and Aki's life and also the village by being in here right after a particularly hot situation! We could have another Konoha incident you greedy fuck!" Susume said angrily.

"Because it isn't enough, okay?" Nao replied.

"Not enough?" Susumu said in a harsh tone. "We got enough to apparently buy 19 Bloodline children! Even one at black market is damn expensive!"

"And that's why we're doing this man! Think about it! Just one costs and arm and a leg! What about 19 of them? We will be set for life!" Nao said in a whisper and Susumu scrunched his nose in disgust

"Think about this, man. We buy the Bloodline kids, sell them higher to Gato, we get rich. Gato sells them higher to Kumo, Gato gets richer. Kumo, although they will get a little less rich, gets stronger with the Bloodline kids in the end. Everybody wins and everybody gets happy!" Nao said.

"Our village wouldn't like that her own ninja is swindling them," Susumu countered again.

"They don't have to know, alright?" Nao said and Susumu smashed him into a nearby wall.

"It's dirty money-"

"Come on! Look around you!" Nao said and spread his arms. "If you're so kind hearted, do you think that this place is the best place for a children to live in and grow? Huh?"

Susumu looked away.

"We are doing them a favour. Kumo will treat them better than Kiri. You know that," Nao pressed on. "No one was willing to get this far and get the children out of here like we do! You know why? Because it is dangerous! So just...consider the money we will get as rewards for our good deeds,"

"So now, I'm asking you. Now that you're here, are you going to abandon them because you're afraid of some dirty money when you could make a difference to their lives, even slightly so?" Nao jabbed his finger at Susumu's chest.

"But our way is wrong," Susumu said weakly.

"Come on, man! Even Aki was dead set on this from the very start!" Nao shot back and broke free from Susumu's hold.

"You took advantage of us! You knew we would be willing so easily!" Susumu said angrily.

"Because I'm the only one that's willing to do this! Ask any of your friends if they would come here! None! You know why? Because they were too scared," Nao replied and Susumu looked away.

"At least I do something. I admit, I'm not a saint, but I'm not a demon either. Would you prefer me spending my lottery winnings at home? I could retire from being a ninja, you know. But I didn't. I just want some...greater reward for the final good that I'm about to do," Nao said and walked away. "And I'm going to do it, with or without you,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto was not having a good day! Well, okay, not really.

The first part of his day wasn't so bad. He managed to annoy three ninja Genins.

Hehehe.

But that got him here, at Kiri, the worst place for someone like him. Honestly, what was the probability he got here anyway? Did somebody put the 'mother-of-all-lightning-rod' here or something?

He didn't see any here anyway.

But then things got more complicated. Oh, how the plot thickens! Now, he must escape from this crazy village, not alone, but with someone.

So how do you do it? Considering that a) he and his soon-to-be escapee partner wasn't much of a ninja, b) he didn't have any kind of planning at all and finally, c) he's naked.

Okay first, solve the easy problems first. That's how you do tests.

Find some clothing. Haku was going to come with some clothes but he didn't know how long that will take.

Suddenly, he heard people coming in to the alley. Naruto quickly dived into a dumpster and suppressed his chakra. After months of gruesome...okay that was exaggerated, training, he was finally able to suppress his chakra to the point that it was hard to detect him by chakra alone.

That was an amazing feat, really. Considering that he has like, dam sized chakra. The good thing resulted from this training was that it prevented him from constantly shocking people that he touched.

Anyway, it seems that two people were having an argument about something. Naruto focused on hearing (not using chaka) what was being said and it was lucky that the people were arguing right beside the dumpster he was in.

After a moment, the people left and Naruto checked his surroundings first before going out of it. He was grinning from ear to ear.

He has found his escape! It seems that life has just given him a dragon fruit juice!

But then, he has a problem. The people were likely human traffickers and going with them is like, a fish escaping the frying pan and into the fire! And then into the cold hard floor which doesn't have any water and thus air for the fish.

He needs something else to escape from the human traffickers. But what? Offer them money? He didn't have any and considering the price that they shelved out for the children costs his arms, legs, and internal organs times 50.

He worth at least, that much, he thought.

So how was he going to do this? Ask Mei to pay them? Nah, they don't have that much either?

Then, it left him with the oldest solution in the book when dealing with an enemy. You kill them.

But that solution sprouted another problem. He wasn't capable of killing them yet.

So what now?

Suddenly, he could hear more people coming to the alley and Naruto dived back into the dumpster.

"Dammit!" voice A said.

"Our getaway ship is busted," voice B said next. "What do we do now?"

"Obviously we need a new one and quick too," voice C said.

Naruto who was inside the dumpster couldn't believe his luck! A trio of ninja's who wanted escape? Maybe he could make them work with him? But how? What if they asked for payment? What would happen if they knew that his escape involved trafficked Bloodline children? What's stopping them from going to this Gato and sell them after they killed the Kumo ninjas?

Either secure their loyalty in some way or find another way to kill the trio. But if it's the latter, he would be better off without them and kill the two Kumo ninjas instead.

If only there were thunderstorm, he would have the strength to do so. But alas, he would have to do things differently.

It looks like he has to involve Mei into his mess. But surely she would understand, right? He was doing the right and noble thing!

Naruto sighed. 'Sorry Mei,' Naruto said and slowly get out from his hiding spot. No sooner than he did so, a hand grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to a wall.

"What the?" Voice C said. "You're naked!"

Naruto couldn't say anything before he was shoved into the ground hard. "Gah! Watch it! I'm fragile!"

Gozu snorted and advanced towards him with a kunai poised to kill him.

"Wait wait wait wait wait!" Naruto quickly got up and brought his hands in front of him. "I got something you would like to hear!"

Gozu snorted again and resumed his advance.

"I know how to escape from here!" Naruto said again and Gozu, snorted _again _and resumed his advance.

"Wait!" Zabuza said in a firm voice and Gozu stopped. "Let's hear what the street rat has to say,"

"Street rat? I'm not a street rat!" Naruto said and the three of them gave him a deadpanned look.

"You're naked, you're smelly, you're covered in garbage. Need any more reason?" Zabuza said.

"Hey! I have a valid reason why I'm like this and being a street rat isn't one of them! And that's not the point right now! Although I could use some clothing," Naruto mumbled and Zabuza sighed.

"Meizu, give him some clothing," Zabuza ordered and Meizu fished out a spare cloak from his storage seal and handed it to Naruto.

"Are you sure about the kid boss? For all we know, he could be working with Yagura," Meizu said while eyeing Naruto, who was covering himself with the cloak.

"Most of the kids that understood the cause of the war hate Yagura. And I can tell he's one of them. Besides, sometimes the kids hear and see things that they aren't supposed to but got ignored. We could use that to our advantage," Zabuza explained.

"Ah, much better," Naruto said and wiped his face on the cloak. Meizu cringed at the sight, he kind of liked the cloak. "Anyway, here's the thing. There's a pair of human traffickers going to purchase some bloodline children and I heard that they managed to bribed the dock guards well enough to grant them escape,"

"Bloodline traffickers?" Zabuza said and narrowed his eyes at Naruto who nodded in reply. Ever since the Kiri Civil War and Bloodline Purge, a lot of people saw profit in trafficking Bloodline users and sell them to the highest bidder. Usually the adults are problematic as they can fight back, so the kids fetch well as they are much more vulnerable and you can train them to obedience.

Zabuza hated those Bloodline traffickers with all his gut. He didn't have any problem with Bloodline users much. Not all of them are bad by default. It's like a sword; it can hurt, but does that mean it was evil and bad by default? No, it can be used to protect. What gives it the good and evil alignment was the user that holds the sword.

In fact, the Bloodline Purge was one of the biggest factors why he wanted to kill Yagura. Besides, they were useful.

"I see..." Zabuza said. "So I figured that you're about to be trafficked too?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Not really. My new friend is. I just got here and I need to get out, just like you guys,"

"Heh, but what's stopping us from selling you instead after we've dispatched the original traffickers?" Gozu said. While he knew that that Zabuza won't do that, he figured he shake the kid up a little bit.

"Weeeelllll," Naruto stalled, trying to figure something out. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind and he cursed himself for his stupidity of not figuring it out sooner.

For three months he lived with the Terumis, they have been educating him about a lot of things. Probably a lot more than what Konoha Academy had. Anyway, they taught him about the ninja ranks and more importantly the Daimyos.

"My father is a relative of the Fire Daimyo. I got kidnapped just a few days ago and brought here," Naruto said and Gozu and Meizu raised an eyebrow at him.

"Really?" Gozu asked.

"Yeah, my kidnappers figured that hiding here would be best for a while, since they knew that Konoha will be very reluctant to wage war to claim me back. So they're trying to negotiate for my release. But I managed to escape them for a while," Naruto said almost confidently.

"Sooooo..." Meizu drawled. "What's stopping us from claiming ransom for you instead,"

"Huh," Naruto scratched the back of his head. He didn't thought of it that way. But then, another idea popped to existence! "Come on! If you guys do that, you will be wanted criminals! But, if I put in a good word with my father, then he will do the same to the Daimyo and you guys will be rewarded generously for your heroic efforts of saving me and other helpless children from the oppressive reign of selfish adults! And who knows, you might get jobs too,"

Gozu and Meizu rubbed their chin in thought. When they thought about it, the boy was right!

Zabuza however, wasn't fooled. He knew that the boy wasn't related to the Daimyo. But still, he figured that he could use the boy's plan for the moment. It was solid. Besides, he won't sell the kids; just...train them to be ninjas. They would be his army in taking back Kiri, their hometown.

"Alright kid, we'll do it your way," Zabuza said and Naruto beamed.

Things are looking up for them.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Where are you Chojuro?" Haku fidgeted on the spot, her heart beating with suspense. She needed to meet with Naruto again quickly to see what his plans of escape were.

"There you are little girl," a voice said behind her and Haku turned around to face one of Ozu's thugs. "We've been looking all over the place for you. Time to go home," the thug smiled and Haku gulped. She didn't have much of a choice.

'Sorry Naruto, maybe this couldn't work after all,' Haku thought sadly.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Sooo, which ship is the ship?" Gozu asked. The four of them were hiding somewhere in the docks, trying to scout for the trafficker's ship to board on.

"You said that they're from Kumo right?" Meizu added and Naruto nodded. "So maybe they'll have Kumo symbol on their ship?"

"No dice, they're on an illegal mission, so it's unlikely they will use Kumo's ship. They will probably use normal merchant ship," Zabuza answered and the three of them nodded.

The dock was kind of busy right now with angry merchants who couldn't leave Kiri. It was expected though because of Zabuza's little assassination attempt. The Kiri ninjas wanted to prevent his escape using the ships and thus, prevent any ship from leaving the dock for the moment.

"Say, wasn't the dock locked? Then how are we going to get out using a ship? I mean, even if the bribed guards let our getaway ship go, the Kiri officials will realise what's going on and after us," Meizu stated.

"The bribed guards will probably release a few ships including ours at the same time to throw off the Kiri officials chasing us," Zabuza said.

"Hmm..." Naruto rubbed his chin for any ideas. He then pondered his brain for anything, then suddenly, he remembered the important details!

_Nao...Susumu...Aki_

"_Come on, man! Even Aki was dead set on this from the very start! And I didn't even have to mention money to her!"_

Aki!

"There's another trafficker that's guarding the ship, I think it was Aki," Naruto said. The ninja trio turned to look at him. "I think I can find her," Naruto grinned.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Masanori, a guy in his early 30s with short grey hair, yellow eyes a shitload of scars (like Ibiki) on his face and a large sword on his back, was having a rather bad day.

Why?

Well, his fellow Swordsmen in Kiri had just attempted assassination on their leader!

Granted, he knew that Zabuza hated Yagura. He also knew that Zabuza would have attempted to kill him. But he didn't do anything about it. Why?

Because he knew Zabuza would fail. Who the heck could kill their psychopath monster of a leader? In this village, none.

But he expected for Zabuza to die trying to do so, not lived. Now he has to hunt him because Yagura and the other Swordsmen were such a lazy ass. Now he has to confront him. It was a pain in the ass.

He didn't mind killing people, but not the ones that could really pain him. He didn't mind getting killed, but he didn't want any more pains! His face was a proof to the shit load of pain he'd been through, and he didn't want to experience it again if he could help it.

Still, a job was still a job. Now where was Zabuza?

"Sir!" Hunter Owl said to him.

"What?" Masanori said lazily.

"We've managed to find Zabuza's getaway ship, but he's not in it. So he's still in Kiri," Owl said.

Masanori sighed. "Great, now we got killer hiding in our home, yaaay,"

"But we do have a tip that might lead us to him," Owl continued and Masanori grunted. It was a sign for him to continue. "We think that he might use another getaway ship. A ship that belongs to Bloodline traffickers,"

Masanori's eyes narrowed at Owl and he gulped behind his mask. If there's one thing Masanori hated, was Bloodline users. A lot of the scars on his body was because of them.

"So they're trying to smuggle killers out of our country eh? No dice, we kill everyone; the traffickers, buyer, seller and the Bloodlines too," Masanori stated and Owl nodded.

"But, there's a bit of a problem," Owl said and Masanori deflated.

"Is this going to be a pain in the butt?" Masanori asked and Owl nodded and he sighed.

"The buyer is Kumo ninjas," Owl stated and Masanori groaned. He forgot that Bloodlone traffickers these days are mostly Kumonin.

"Damn it! We can't kill within Kiri's borders. We have to wait until they set sail, then we hunt them. Make it look like an accident. So release the lockdown on the dock," Masanori ordered and Owl nodded and disappeared.

Kumo, in the ninja world, was the resident douche jerk bully. They're the crafty bully type; the one that bullies you yet told the authorities that you're the one that bullied them, making the victim looked like the bullies!

He wasn't making this up. Few years ago, they send delegates for peace treaty with Konoha and the delegates had the gall to kidnap one of their Hyuuga members who was a kid at the time and not to mention the heiress.

That act alone could lead to war but Kumo denied having the delegate's actions, stating that the delegate was acting on his own. It worked because the delegate was killed, instead of captured and interrogated. Stupid Konoha.

Anyway, Kumo stated that they were victimised instead, demanded justice and would wage war unless Konoha gave them the head of their delegate's killer. They knew Konoha would relent because they didn't want another war to start so Konoha gave in.

And that pretty much boosted Kumo's ego and Bloodline traffickers saw a raise. They didn't tried to steal any other village's Bloodline but they started to focus on Kiri, since Kiri was rejecting their Bloodlines like crazy.

The same thing that happened to Konoha could happen here if he killed the Kumonins on Kiri soil. Kumo would go apeshit and would demand compensation or war. Kiri right now, could not wage war with another country, especially one that was a powerhouse such as Kumo.

If that were to happen, then Yagura would claim his ass. And that would be a major pain in the ass.

So now, he has to wait. But until then, he could pay someone a visit.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Pleasure doing business with you," Nao said and shake hands with Ozu. The deal was done, the money traded hands and so are the children.

Ozu was smirking from the inside. He had just killed two birds with one stone! The truth was, he only has 18 Bloodline children, including Haku for sale. The nineteenth child, was Chojuro.

Yes, it was true that Chojuro doesn't have any Bloodline in him, but Ozu wanted to get rid of the boy. He didn't like having to take care of him because of his eyesight. It would be a pain to get the boy glasses, which isn't cheap. And the boy wasn't worth the price for it anyway.

So he lied to his client about one boy. Big deal. They won't realise it until it was too late anyway. Besides, it was normal for your purchase of bulk to have some defects in them. Sometimes, it wasn't the manufacturer's fault, but rather the deliverer's.

"The pleasure is mine. So I will send the children to your ship then. I figured you handled your exit well?" Ozu said.

"It was unexpected, but manageable. I'll get out from here," Nao replied with a shrug. "What's the deal with the increased security?"

"Well, a rather famous ninja, Momochi Zabuza attempted assassination on the Mizukage," Ozu stated and Nao looked surprised.

"Zabuza? THE Demon of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza?" Nao said and Ozu smiled.

"The very same. But of course, he thought that he was the real demon, but compared to Yagura, he's nothing," Ozu said and Nao laughed.

"True, true," Nao said.

"Anyway, I'll help with your exit as able as I can," Ozu said and Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "It won't do well for me if you were to get caught,"

Nao smirked at him. "That's true,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto walked towards the ships to a woman that the four of them suspected would be their Aki. From the looks of it, this Aki must be a ninja too and if there's one thing a seasoned ninja like Zabuza knew, was to detect another ninja, even in disguise.

The woman, who seemed to be in her mid 20s, has black ponytailed hair with pink eyes. She's quite the beauty, from Gozu and Meizu's opinion anyway. She was minding her own business but the four of them knew that she's on the lookout.

But that didn't stop her from stopping Naruto from bumping into her, hard. Aki stumbled backward but quickly regain her footing; a sign of good ninja while Naruto fell to his bottom.

"Watch where you-" Aki said harshly but stopped halfway when he realised who had just bumper her. She then check herself for her wallet because usually, when people bumped you, they either do it on purpose to pickpocket you, put a tracer or they really didn't see you.

Naruto knew that she was starting to get suspicious so he reacted quickly. "My food! My only food for the day!" Naruto said and Aki looked at what he was saying and saw a loaf of bread, which was provided by Zabuza, floating in a puddle near them. The bread was beyond all hope of eating.

Aki felt bad. Not only did she suspected the child, but she ruined his food! Not to mention that the kid only has a cloak as his clothing. Naruto then crawled towards the bread and picked it up. The soggy bread let out a small stream of water from it.

"I guess, I'll just have to wait for it to dry," Naruto said sadly and Aki looked shocked.

"Wait, you're going to eat it?" Aki said and Naruto nodded sadly.

"Yeah, it's my only food for the day. But...I'm used to it though. Sometimes stale breads taste better if you dunk it in water..." Naruto said. He...has experiences with breads like this many times before.

Aki was a seasoned ninja, but that doesn't mean she's heartless, especially to children. It was the reason why she went along with Nao's plan. She wanted to save some of the children here as she too, has similar experiences.

"My name's Aki," Aki said and brought Naruto to his feet and discarded the bread away. Naruto made a small gasp, but not because of his bread was just got thrown out, but because his target was true.

'YES! Jackpot!' Naruto said. "Na-naruto," Naruto said weakly, trying to look sad.

"Come with me, I'll give you some proper clothing and food," Aki said with a smile and Naruto beamed.

"I get to wear clothing again! Thank you lady!" Naruto jumped in joy and followed a smiling Aki inside.

He actually felt bad for the things that they are going to her though.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Damn! I must give it to you kid, things are looking well!" Gozu stated happily inside the Kumonin's ship. Aki was unconscious and tied inside a room inside the ship.

"I'm surpised that things were going so well," Naruto said and scratched the back of his head. "I feel like something's wrong though..."

Naruto pondered for a moment before...

"FUCK!" Naruto screamed and the ninja trio looked at him. "I forgot whether Haku has any Bloodline or not!" Naruto said and paced around. If she didn't have any, and she weren't bought, then all of his effort would be for nothing! Well, not really as he would be helping other children too, but still!

"Aki! Are you in? The deals done and the 'packages' are coming!" a voice said from the ship's deck.

"What? Already?" Naruto said and Zabuza ordered his men to get ready for the ambush.

Nao and Susumu entered the ship and saw Naruto. They were shocked at first, but that was enough as the Demon Brothers, along with the Demon of the Mist himself moved in and held them and knifepoint with their kunai.

"What the fuck?" Nao said. "Did Ozu send you?"

Zabuza took off the bandages that was covering his mouth and grinned. "That's right," It wasn't the truth but Zabuza wanted to damage the human trafficker's reputation.

Nao saw the shark like tooth and felt a sense of dread washed over him. "Za-Zabuza?"

"Right again," Zabuza said.

"Now all your belongings are belong to us!" Naruto stated and pointed to Nao and everyone looked at him weirdly.

"What? It's true," Naruto shrugged.

"Whatever," Meizu said and knocked the two Kumonins unconscious.

A few moments later, barrels that contained fruits arrived at the ship. The four of them check the barrels thoroughly and found out that the Bloodline children were indeed inside the barrel, buried underneath the fruits. They were sedated lightly though. In half an hour, they would wake up.

"Wow, canned children with fruits?" Naruto commented and Gozu laughed hard and Meizu smacked his brother to make him focus on the job.

To Naruto's utter relief, Haku was included among the children, sleeping lightly under a pile of dragon fruits. Oh man, Kami sure has some sense of humor.

"Phew! Haku's here! I almost thought of going back to get him into the ship!" Naruto said.

"You do that, you're on your own," Zabuza said coldly and Naruto scrunched his nose at him. Zabuza ignored him though. "Get the ship moving!"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Ozu was a happy man! He just got filthy rich and rid himself of troubling children along the way. He has just killed two birds with one stone!

Unfortunately though, his happiness was short-lived.

He was just casually rocking on his comfy expensive executive chair with his head behind his hands when the door to his office burst open and ninjas appeared into existence. Ozu was shocked as they never entered in this fashion before.

A few seconds later, Masanori entered the room. "So...Ozu, how you've been?" Masanori said and casually walked to his desk.

Ozu was sweating bullets as he knew why the ninjas were here. But he tried to play his cool. "Fi-fine," he said weakly.

"Really? You don't look fine to me," Masanori said and put a leg on the table.

"Yo-you broke into my office!" Ozu shoot back with much confidence this time.

"..." Masanori had a blank look on his face. "It was a pain to open it,"

Ozu's head almost crashed into his desk but he straightened himself. "But it didn't pain you to destroy my door?"

"I didn't do it. My lackeys did," Masanori deadpanned and Ozu's head hit the desk. He then got up again.

"What do you want?" Ozu said with a firm voice, his courage coming back to him. If he played this right, he could survive.

Masanori sighed. "You know I hate things that are a pain in the ass, and that includes dramas and theatrics. So I'm going to make this extremely straight to the point," Masanori took in a deep breath before speaking, "You. Busted. Bloodline Trafficking. Give sales money. Now,"

Ozu paled at this. He was officially screwed. He won't get out of this alive. "Wait wait wait! I know which ship they're in! I-"

"Save it, I already know," Masanori said and drew out the large sword on his back. The white bandages wrapped around the sword began to unravel to reveal a fish shaped sword with two handles and two holes at the upper blade.

It was one of the seven swords of Kiri. The Hiramekarei or the Twinsword.

"You know...ninjas are a paranoid bunch. It takes a lot for them to trust someone. So can you imagine the thing that a ninja hates the most in the world?" Masanori said while swinging the large sword over him.

Ozu was petrified with fear and he couldn't run away. Two ninjas were beside him preventing his escape.

"Traitors," Masanori said and stabbed Ozu squarely on the chest. Ozu's scream was short however as blood gushed out from his mouth. "Goodbye Ozu, you've been a pain in my ass, and that is the thing that I hate the most,"

Masanori then flared his chakra through Hiramekarei and the massive chakra formed into the shape of four point anchors through the holes. The result was that Ozu's body upper top was completely obliterated, spraying his body parts everywhere while leaving only his legs on the chair.

"Sweep his office for any valuables especially documents. Kiri will be happy to take over his business," Masanori said while sitting on the desk while removing some flesh of his hair. "Make it quick, we're going to sink a ship after this,"

"Yes sir!" the ninjas in the room chorused.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Haku was starting to have a good day! She thought that she would never escape not only from Kiri, but from slavery, but she did! She thought that Chojuro and Naruto were left behind, but they somehow managed to come along!

And now they were heading to Wave to sort things out.

She also gets to eat fruits! It was a rarity to be able to eat it when she was in the orphanage. They would feed her food scraps and stale breads. This was the first time she gets to eat a variety of fruits like peaches, dragon fruit and mango.

A lot of the children on the ship preferred to eat the sweet tasting fruits. Naruto however, loved dragon fruit. The fruit itself was weird. While most of the fruit on the ship tasted sweet, the dragon fruit's taste was...bland. Not too sweet, not to bitter and a bit sour. But what was surprising was its flesh. It was juicy and refreshing to eat. Not to mention that it has a lot of seeds and added a crunchy taste.

She liked the fruit already.

"Say Haku?" Naruto said.

"Hmm?" Haku said with her mouth full.

"I didn't know you have a Bloodline. What kind of Bloodline do you have?" Naruto asked and almost every Bloodline children cringed at the question. People in Kiri don't respond very well to Bloodline issues.

Haku was hesitant to answer but Naruto's smile and big curious eyes made her answer. "I can make ice," she answered timidly.

"Ice? Awesome! Can you turn into ice, though?" Naruto asked and Haku titled her head.

"I-I'm not sure," Haku answered.

"Hmmm, oh well. Show me your ability!" Naruto said and Haku complied, turning the dragon fruit in Naruto's hand into a frozen fruit. Naruto then hit the fruit on the floor a few times and loud 'thunk!' could be heard. "Awesome!"

"Say boss, what do we do with the Kumonins?" Gozu asked while munching on an apple.

"Before we reach Wave, we dispose of them in the ocean," Zabuza simply said while eating his own apple and observing the children, especially Haku and Naruto. Things couldn't have been better for the now missing ninja. While he failed in killing Yagura, at least he managed to escape and not to mention, he has 19 children with Bloodline that he could train and make his own army to strike back at Yagura.

And although taking care of 19 children will be very hard, they'll manage. It seems that he will have to be like Ozu a bit. He will have to make them work for a living. But he won't be like Ozu, who oppressed the children who lived under him. Zabuza will train them on how to survive on their own, rather than make the children depend on him to live.

"Ah shit! 4 interceptors are heading our way!" Meizu, who was on the lookout said loudly. An interceptor was a high speed boat with sole purpose of speed and enough firepower to down weak ships rather than defense and cargo capacity. They were designed to catch up with ships, and the strike team on board would board them or attack the ships while dodging enemy attacks.

Kiri has the best ships of all elemental nations. While merchant ships are limited to wind based propulsion, only the very rich and the hidden villages are able to afford steam based ships. However, Kiri has something else that none of the rest of the world has yet, motor boats.

The motor boats, along with other technologies found in the ninja world were actually salvaged from ruins from the Tech Age; where technology was used heavily at the time. However, something happened and destroyed the Tech Age and left only few pieces of technology in ruins that are often underground. It didn't help that most of the technologies are quiet complex and the current age; the Ninja Age wasn't able to fully understand them. They managed to replicate some of it, but not fully understand it. That's why technology was sporadic in the ninja world.

Anyway, the motor boats that they found uses fuel that they aren't able to make yet. Research was made to use other fuel, but with the civil war, it was a slow research. Miraculously, they are able to make it work with chakra, although it requires a lot of it. They bypass this problem by using chakra storage seals. However, this limits its use on small to medium boats like the motor boats and jet-skis.

"They will catch up to us in 3 minutes!" Meizu added. Zabuza and Gozu got up and prepared themselves for a fight.

"What do we do boss? If they reach the ship, they're going to bomb us with exploding tags and high powered ninjutsus for sure! This ship does have any weapons!" Gozu asked.

"Get the kids inside the ship and get the Kumonins. Release them and tell them unless they cooperate for the time being, they will be killed, not by us, but by Kiri Hunter Ninjas," Zabuza ordered and Gozu nodded and set to work. "You, stay," Zabuza said to Haku and Naruto didn't join the kids to get inside the ship.

A few moments later the Kumonins got out to the ship's deck and faced Zabuza. Susumu and Aki looked ready to fight while Nao looked angry, angry with the fact that his business plan was going downhill.

"Listen up! Kiri send 4 interceptor boats after our asses and I bet it isn't to capture us. They will show no mercy and do everything they can to sink us! Now, I estimate around 20 Kiri ninja heading our way, and they are the hunter nins; ninjas that specialises in killing Bloodline users. They will not fight fair and they are very strong," Zabuza said and Nao, Haku and Naruto looked a bit scared.

"We have to kill them to survive this. Gozu, Meizu and you," Zabuza pointed to Aki. "Protect the ship. This will be very hard and expect a lot of exploding tags and high powered water techniques," The three of them nodded.

"You, you and you will follow me. We're going to do something about the boats," Zabuza said to Susumu, Nao and Haku.

"Eh? M-me? But..." Haku said nervously.

"You're going to have to use your powers. Either you kill them, or they will kill you, and your friends. Do you want that?" Zabuza asked and Haku shook her head. "Good, now get ready!"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Don't you think that this is overkill?" Masanori asked Owl, who shook his head.

"No sir. If I must say, we're being outnumbered 20 to 22, if they didn't kill the Kumonins, 25," Owl said.

"But it's not like the Bloodline children can fight," Masanori said.

"They are still the enemy and we have to assume that our enemy is capable of fighting, children or not. Especially when there's ninja children like Hatake Kakashi," Owl stated and Masanori shuddered.

Hatake Kakashi, the prime example that a child can be a powerful ninja during the Third Ninja World War. "Right,"

"Sir!" Eagle, who was driving the boat said. "Enemies water running towards us!"

Masanori squinted his eyes to have a better view of the ocean and sure enough, he saw three figures water running towards them.

"Should we hit them with our boats?" Eagle suggested.

"No, that will be very dangerous. Spread out and circle the-" Masanori couldn't finish when the attack started.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Kumonins! I want you to attack using your lightning arsenal on the first left and right boats! Make them swerve towards the center of the formation!" Zabuza ordered, his Executioner Sword's tip was cutting the surface of the ocean from his running.. Nao growled but complied anyway.

The four interceptor boats were moving in a line position towards them. Susumu and Nao then flashed their handseals and initiated their techniques.

"Lightning Technique: Lightning Stream!" the Kumonins chanted and sent a stream of thick lightning from the palm of their hand. The Lightning Stream almost hit the boat but they attacked from an angle that they have no choice but to swerve towards the center boats.

The boats almost hit each other but managed to regain their control, but they were closer than before. The boats are getting closer, however.

"Haku! I want you to cast a large spiky ice field in front of us, now!" Zabuza ordered and Haku, who was piggybacking Zabuza, hesitantly nodded. The scale of ice that Zabuza wanted from her will be the biggest one she has ever done yet, and it will strain her. But she has to do it.

Haku then focused, trying to remember the feeling that she had when she was forced to defend herself from her father and the mob. But this time, instead of the feeling of fear, she felt the determination to protect her newfound freedom and friends.

A large part of the ocean in front of them suddenly froze and large ice spikes shot upwards. The boats were caught by surprise and slammed towards the ice spiked field.

The second boat from the left hit a raised curved iced rock and was sent spinning towards the air. Susumu, noticed this and threw large amounts of exploding kunais towards the ship. It hit various part of the boat; the deck, the bottom and even some unlucky ninja. The exploding kunai exploded and destroyed the ship along with its passengers.

"5 down!" Susumu said triumphly.

The first boat from the right slammed a thin sheet of ice and smashed through it but flew a little towards the air. Nao also threw his exploding kunais but the Kiri ninjas in the boat fared better and four jet skis and a ninja jumped out from the exploding boat and sped towards their ship. The jet ski-less ninja sped towards the ice field, taking cover there.

"Dammit!" Nao cursed.

The first boat on the left hit a rather thin sheet of ice and went through it and resumed normal speed, leaving them. "Shit!" Susumu cursed. He failed to tag them with exploding kunais because he was busy destroying the flying boat just now.

However, the final boat; the second boat from the right had the worst. It slammed into a very thick ice and was stopped immediately with a sickening crash.

"5 killed, 9 escaped, 6 left. This isn't good for the ship," Zabuza summarised and the four of them arrived at the large ice field while dodging falling spikes. Zabuza then set Haku down. "Hide yourself, but be ready to kill. Understand?" Haku nodded tiredly, making the ice field was taxing for her. "Take this, it'll help," Zabuza said and handed her a chakra pill and she ate it wordlessly and she walked away to hide herself.

"You guys are a fucking pain in the ass, you know that?" a voice said. Masanori with 5 Kiri Hunter ninjas appeared on top of the boat wreckage and they were unharmed. It seems that they managed to escape on the last minute.

Masanori then drew out his Hiramekarei and stabbed it into the boat. "The rest of you, handle the Kumonins. Zabuza is mine," Masanori ordered. The Kiri ninja's nodded and sped towards different direction.

The Kumonins did the same and left Zabuza with Masanori alone.

"So..." Masanori started. "How have you been?" Masanori then dashed forward and slashed Hiramekarei at Zabuza. Zabuza blocked it with his own sword.

"Fine, before you came along," Zabuza replied and pushed Masanori away.

"Ditto," Masanori replied.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Naruto watched as an interceptor boat was heading towards them while four jet skis accompanying it.

"Oh boy, oh boy! They're here!" Naruto said anxiously.

"Don't worry, we'll protect you," Aki said and put a hand on his shoulder while giving him a reassuring smile. It seemed like she doesn't mind about being knocked out and tied earlier. Naruto nodded with a smile.

"Get ready! They're going to throw lots of exploding kunais! Don't let them stick to the ship!" Meizu ordered and the three ninjas began to spread out around the ship to better protect it.

Naruto knew he must do something, and it is time to use his powers offensively again. It was kind of hard because for three months he has been training on mainly, how to suppress his chakra as not to harm himself and others when touching him. He hasn't started on offensive techniques yet as the Terumi wanted for him to have excellent chakra control first.

But now he has to start being on the offensive.

"_**That would be easier than you think, kid," **_Kyuubi said.

'Oh hey! I thought you were sleeping or something since it has been a while since you talked to me,' Naruto mentally said.

"_**Because there isn't much for me to talk to you at that time. You were handling the situation quite well. I'm impressed," **_Kyuubi said again.

'Oh, thanks!' Naruto thought.

"_**Anyway, remember that unlike the others, you powers are based on your emotions and instincts rather than handseals," **_Kyuubi said and Naruto nodded.

'So I must feel the need to eliminate my threat,' Naruto thought again and Kyuubi replied with a 'hn'.

"Alright, here goes!" Naruto said and pointed a finger towards the incoming interceptor and he could see the driver, a Lizard ninja. Naruto focused his thought, thinking that the Lizard ninja was a threat to his life. The boat was coming closer and his heart started to pound faster. Arcs of lightning began to appear from his body and started to focus on his finger.

A small ball of lightning started to form on his finger tips and shot out (Lightning Bullet) towards Lizard. The hunter ninja was very surprised at the attack as it was way faster than normal lightning chakra attacks. He couldn't react fast enough and the Lightning Bullet burnt through the windshield and into his head before exploding into arcs of lightning, destroying the head completely.

Lizard's body twitched violently before dropping to the floor and the boat slowed down.

"Yes!" Naruto said. His victory is short-lived however, as four jet skis jumped out from the boat and sped towards the ship.

Multiple exploding kunais shot out from the sides of the ship, courtesy of Gozu, Meizu and Aki towards the incoming attackers. Explosions rocked the seas and signalled the start of the battle.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Susumu was having a bad day. He already knew that getting involved with Nao was a bad idea. But he was roped into it with the pretext that it would help the Bloodline children. He didn't think that Nao was going to sell them to Gato. This was because he wasn't sure if Gato would sell them to Kumo. He could sell them to other villages with the highest bid.

Susumu, although his exterior might say otherwise, was a kind hearted man. He wouldn't step on a fly if he could help it.

But now, things are looking very bad. The children and him could get killed. And even if they survived this, they could be under new management, Momochi Zabuza. Who knew if the Demon was any better than the rest of Kiri.

So now he has to fight against the Kiri Hunter ninjas and later if need, Zabuza. He wasn't sure if he would live after that, but he'll try.

And he got to fight 3 Kirinins too. Yay.

Susumu drew out his large sword. It was an oversized normal looking double edged sword. Say what you will of the size, but he was not compensating for _something. _He used large swords because he can and it was effective against tiny swords. He killed countless ninjas who used normal swords of weak material with just one slash.

The first Kirinin, Crow, dashed towards him with his own katana held out. Crow was more likely the bait to draw his attention while the rest was waiting for a chance to attack from far or put traps.

As soon as Crow was in striking range, Susumu slashed vertically from the top at him. Crow then immediately back pedaled backwards to avoid the sword. Susumu raised an eyebrow but didn't let it bother him anymore. Crow, however, expected for the large sword to crash down on the ice. He would then jump on the sword, hoping to cause it to get stuck, rendering the Kumonin swordless and ran along the sword and attack him.

But, Susumu wasn't a mindless sword swinging simpleton. He was a Jounin Swordmaster from Kumogakure, one of the two hidden villages to specialise on sword mastery. His strike was true and not wasteful. Susumu's sword stopped halfway and was now, pointed at Crow's stomach and Susumu lunged forward, impaling him in the middle of the stomach.

Crow was shocked and held the sword with both of his hands but sadly, unable to get a grip because of its width. Susumu then brought his sword downwards, splitting his crotch in the process.

Crow screamed at the unholy pain he was feeling and Susumu also cringed at the sight. Susumu then, with a quick motion, decapitates the now eunuch ninja. He would like for him to feel the pain longer, but he couldn't afford his friends to rescue him.

Large wave of fire raced towards him and Susumu jumped away and the flame consumed the dead Kirinin. It was sad at how little his friends respected him after death. That or death by flames was much better than castration and decapitation.

Susumu, while in midair, looked back at where he was going to land and saw explosive notes, set to detonate once he's in proximity.

Fuck.

Susumu then brought his sword to cover himself, the flat surface facing him and the explosive notes. That was the perk of having an oversized sword; his was wide enough to cover his body and acts as a shield. The notes exploded once he was near and the blast propelled him forwards. He was lucky that the notes exploded on proximity and not contact. It would hurt him more if it was the latter.

He was in midair again and there was a large amount of razor sharp wires in his trajectory and was ready to slice him into ribbons. He then slashed his sword vertically again but it was a mistake.

Before his sword could touch the wires, it slacked and the ends of the wires moved to surround him. The Kirinins expected for him to do what he did and he fell into their trap like a mouse. The wires then wrapped around his body but not before Susumu coated himself with lightning chakra. The lightning chakra didn't cut however and instead travelled along the wires. If it were normal rope, it would have been cut to pieces.

The wires tightened for a moment and cut into his skin before it loosened as his lightning chakra deterred his assailants. As soon as he was free, Susumu dropped his sword and Substituted with the charred corpse of Crow below him. Susumu appeared on the slightly melted ground while his sword still in the air and the charred corpse were pinned with multiple exploding tags. The poor corpse exploded in a shower of blood and meat.

The thing about Kirinins assigned to down ships was that, they have loads of explosive notes.

The Kirinins saw that he was sword-less and took the chance to engage him in close combat. Bear appeared and slashed downwards at Susumu with his kunai but before it could hit anything, Susumu brought his hand to block it. However, his block wasn't aimed at the blade but rather, the fingers on the handle. His arm connected with the fingers with a sickening crack and Bear involuntarily released the kunai.

Susumu caught the short sword while Bear stumbled backwards and jumped away. However, Eagle appeared behind him and stabbed through his kidney with a katana. Susumu held the bloodied blade with his free hand, pulled it forward and brought Eagle closer towards him. Eagle couldn't react fast enough and Susumu stabbed Eagle's kidney multiple times before finally stabbing and holding on to him.

Karma's a bitch, huh?

Eagle violently coughed blood and Susumu then quickly spun on the spot and Eagle, who was still holding to his katana and pinned by Susumu, was caught in the momentum. Eagle was now facing Bear and Susumu's sword sliced him through the head on its way down, cutting him in half.

Susumu grunted in pain at the manoeuver that he just did. Bear then took this opportunity to appear in front of Susumu, wanting to exploit his moment of weakness.

However, Susumu expected this and broke the katana on his stomach with his hands and stabbed forward with all his might. The blade hit Bear's throat and went through while his kunai slashed horizontally at Susumu's own throat. However, Susumu stabbed with such force that his hand hit Bear's throat and pushed him backwards a little bit. This caused Bear's slash to hit his throat but it wasn't too deep to cut it open, only to cause a small cut. A small trickle of blood flowed from Susumu's mouth and neck but it didn't bother him yet.

Susumu then pushed Bear away and took out the broken katana from his throat. Bear then, as a last act of defiance, threw his kunai at Susumu's heart. Susumu was a little bit slow to catch it and the kunai hit his left arm. Bear then stopped moving and fell to his knees, dead.

Weapon-less or not, you should never engage a close range specialist in melee.

"Nao, you owe me big time," Susumu said and sat on the floor.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Nao's day started from good and now, it turned sour like rotten foods! If he had known, he should have stayed back at home with his lottery winning! What the hell drove him to do to this in the first place anyway?

Ah, yes the debts. You see, Nao was a compulsive gambler. They say that it would get worse before it turned good and Nao was in that kind of situation. He got shitload of debts that would leave a dent on his lottery winning and as usual, he figured he could _gamble _again by doing something very risky. And you get the idea of what happened next.

Nao pulled out his two kunais and held one in reverse grip and the other with normal grip. His kunais was different from normal kunais in that each has wrist strap to allow him to cast ninjutsus without having to store them.

"Come out come out wherever you are," Nao said to his surroundings. His enemies had hid themselves quite well among the numerous ice spikes littered around the ice field. It seems that they knew his forte was close range combat.

Smart. Good for them, but bad for him.

Numerous exploding kunais rained on him from two sides. "Oh shit!" Nao cursed and ran quickly from the soon to be exploding ice field. Explosions were everywhere, sending numerous shockwaves and ice shards everywhere.

Nao was thrown on the floor harshly but he managed to cover his face from the incoming ice shards. Thankfully, some of the ice shards were already melting when it hit him. The ice field where he started just now was replaced by a large hole that gave access to the ocean waters.

Nao immediately got up to his feet as Owl crashed down with an overhead tanto slash. Nao blocked with one of his kunai while the other was aimed to stab at him. Owl saw this and brought out another tanto to block it. Both combatants locked blades for a moment before Owl pushed Nao's blade away, breaking the blade lock.

Nao and Owl both then slashed at each other furiously, attacking while defending, parrying while thrusting and slashing their blades at each other. Numerous sparks flew from the clashing of their blades and then, blood.

Both combatants managed to cut each other but the wounds aren't too deep. Just grazes. Suddenly, a large dragon made of water emerged from the water hole and rushed towards them.

Both combatants jumped away quickly but the dragon gave chase to Nao. Nao had just landed on the side of an ice spike before he has to jump away as the dragon crashed into it and resumed the chase.

Nao landed on another ice spike and this time, jumped towards the dragon. He then threw an exploding kunai into it and caused the head to explode while he ran on top of its body. The remainder of the water technique crashed towards the ground and Nao landed safely.

Falcon suddenly crashed through the ice a few feet in front of Nao with a katana slashed horizontally at him. Nao jumped and spun backwards and his blades met Owl's blades who had just appeared behind him.

Falcon got to his feet and slashed at Nao's back. Nao jumped to his left and the sword missed. He then threw down smoke bombs at the two Kirinins. Falcon jumped away but Owl dashed forward at Nao and resumed his attack and Nao couldn't even land before he has to parry the attacks.

The two traded blows again before Owl managed to kick him in the gut and send him reeling backwards. Falcon landed on Owl's shoulder and jumped at Nao with an overhead slash. Nao released his kunais and steeled himself for what he was about to do.

"Hope this works!" Nao said and grabbed the katana's blade with both of his hands and with all of his might, he broke the blade. He then gripped the broken blade with a hand while the other hand shot forward and gripped Falcon's hand that was holding the katana.

Falcon was too surprised at what Nao just did. Rarely anyone did that as it was very dangerous. If you failed to catch the blade, it will split your head. Too early, and it will cut your hand. Even if you did catch it, there was risk of injury too as evidenced by Nao's bleeding hand.

Nao took advantage of Falcon's shock and slashed at his throat and stabbed him in the heart with the blade. Blood spilled in large amounts and Nao kicked Falcon away. Owl jumped over Falcon's body and landed behind Nao and slashed downwards. Nao managed to spun backwards just in time to block the attack and sparks flew when both blades met.

Nao stepped backwards a bit and Owl stepped forward, his right hand with a tanto speared at his stomach. The attack hit his stomach and Nao, with a reverse gripped kunai, stabbed at Owls arm and prevented him from pulling away his tanto. Nao then counterattacked with his own stab using his right hand with a normal grip kunai, aimed at his throat.

Owl then stabbed Nao's offending arm with his own tanto and it went through and managed to stop Nao's kunai before the tip hit his throat. However, Nao wasn't finished and poised his kunai upwards and stabbed Owl's lower jaw. He then flared his wind chakra through his kunai and the twisting wind blade laced kunai grinded the inside of his head. A few seconds later, Owl went limp and his body dropped to the floor.

"Fuck, I should have stayed at home," Nao said and collapsed to the floor.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Hawk was speeding across the water on his jet ski towards the ship, ready to throw some exploding kunais at it. Before he could do that however, Gozu and Meizu jumped out from the water with a chain made of shuriken between them. He failed to react quickly enough as the sharp chain snagged him and throw him off his jet ski.

Before he could hit the water though, Gozu and Meizu crossed each other and wrapped the chain around Hawk and immediately tightened it and cut him into half.

"One down! Seven more!" Gozu said and jumped on his brother's arm. Meizu then, with all his might, pushed his brother towards Hawk's driverless jet ski. Gozu shot forward and managed to landed on the jet ski. He then took hold of the steering handle with one hand and pulled his brother with his other hand that has the gauntlet with the chain.

Meizu jumped and on the air, he was pulled by his brother towards the jet ski. He landed on his shoulder and disconnected the chain and jumped towards the ship's side next.

Gozu then drove away while spinning his chain on the air like a cowboy. "Yee HA! I'm coming, Yagura's cows!" Gozu screamed. Meizu could only shook his head.

On the other side of the ship, Monkey sped his jet ski full speed towards the ship and hit a particular bumpy wave. It was what he wanted and the wave sent his jet ski to the air. He then stuck an explosive tag at his jet ski and kicked it towards the ship. Before he landed on the water, he threw a smoke bomb to conceal himself.

Aki knew what Monkey intended to do and flashed her handseals. "Not on my watch, fucker! Lightning Technique: Lightning Stream!"

The lightning stream hit the jet ski and it exploded. A large number of kunai shot from the smoke towards Aki and she deflected it with her own thrown kunai. The smoke cleared and Monkey ran towards the ship and began to cast his technique with a large number of handseals.

Aki's heart started to pound faster at knowing what technique Monkey intended to do. She was about to throw more kunais when a large lightning struck the water and electrocuted Monkey. Monkey then exploded into water and Aki raised an eyebrow at this. The real monkey floated a second later from the water.

It seemed that the clone Monkey was a distraction and the real Monkey even gave him real kunais as not to reveal him too early. The real Monkey was swimming underwater to stick exploding tags beneath the ship. Had he succeeded, all is lost.

Aki looked towards the source of the lightning and saw Naruto, who was grinning at him. Fortunately, they have him.

"Six more!" Naruto said and Aki nodded.

Back to Gozu, it was surprising really on how he could drive the jet ski with one hand, dodging projectiles thrown at him while swinging his chain overhead. Even more surprising was the fact that he was whipping projectiles from the air.

"Yeah! I'm the whip master! Dominatrix got nothing on me! WOOO!" Gozu screamed and Meizu almost face palmed using his gauntlet and changed to his other hand. His brother can be stupid at times. Still, he got skill.

"Gozu!" Meizu screamed and jumped towards him. Gozu realised this and whipped the chain at him, wrapping around his brother's gauntlet and threw him at an unsuspecting Dolphin, who was riding his jet ski without hands. He was apparently busy casting a technique.

Meizu flew towards Dolphin and shot his gauntlet arm forward. The clawed gauntlet connected with Dolphin's skull and took him off the jet ski. Meizu slide on the water surface before throwing away Dolphin's lifeless body away.

"Five left," Meizu said before a jet ski jumped at him. Meizu stopped channeling chakra to his feet and he sunk into the water. The jet ski crashed and skidded across the water surface a few times before it stopped and sink into the water too.

Meizu emerged quickly with his gauntlet hand speared at a Kirinin. Cat blocked it with his tanto but Meizu gripped it and wretched it away. Meizu then pulled out his kunai and stabbed at Cat but she blocked it with her hand. Her other free hand then pulled out an explosive tag and she tagged Meizu's gauntlet before jumping away.

"Bitch! This gauntlet is hard to come by!" Meizu said and threw his gauntlet at Cat who kicked it back. "Oh, little pussycat got humor!"

Meizu dived back into the water to avoid the explosion. He then casted his technique and a water torrent (Water Launch) shot him out of the water at great speed towards Cat again.

The two met and exchanged blows with each other. Meizu punched her on the chest, which was cushioned by her somewhat sizeable breasts and Cat punched him on the stomach. Cat then tried to knee him on the groin but Meizu brought his legs together and pinched her leg before it reached the target.

"Ah ah ah," Meizu said before punching her hard in the left eye. The punch shattered her mask and sent shards into her eyeball. Cat was thrown backwards and she fell on her back on the ocean floor while screaming. Meizu jumped and kneed her on the stomach. Cat coughed violently as the wind was knocked out of her and Meizu gripped her head and submerge it underwater. Cat tried to break free but Meizu held her arm with his other hand to prevent her from submerging her whole body to escape. Cat's other hand frantically reached into her kunai pouch and stabbed Meizu on the leg before she went limp.

"Four to go," Meizu said and broke Cat's neck for good measure and jumped away.

On Aki's side, she was facing Tiger who was speeding towards the ship. "You're unlucky that water's my first element!" Aki said and flashed through her handseals.

"Water Technique: Whirlpool!" Aki casted and a small whirlpool appeared and swallowed Tiger's jet ski. Tiger would have joined too but he jumped away at the last moment. He was in mid-air and was about to land on the side of the ship when Aki jumped and kicked him.

Tiger blocked it with a cross guard and was pushed away but later found out that Aki had put an exploding note on the bottom of her leg before kicking him and transferred the exploding note to his hand. Tiger couldn't remove the note quick enough and it exploded, taking his arms with it.

Tiger fell into the water, screaming while bleeding like a fountain. Aki landed a few feet away from him and flicked a kunai to his head, silencing him immediately. "3 left,"

A loud motor noise came from her left and she immediately jumped and did a backflip, avoiding a katana slash from Boar. She landed but before she could do a counter attack, she had to jump away again to avoid being hit by Gozu.

"Out of my way!" Gozu said while dragging his chain across the water. Boar then turned around to face Gozu, his katana cutting the surface of the water. "Come on!" Gozu yelled and whipped his chain at Boar who slashed it with his katana.

Boar's katana didn't cut the whip but instead wrapped around it. Gozu then smiled as the katana was on Boar's right hand and so he sped his jet ski towards Boar's left side.

Boar noticed this and jumped off from his jet ski. The jet ski almost hit Gozu, who managed to avoid it at the last minute. Boar landed and pulled on the chain hard and it snagged Gozu off from his jet ski.

"Oh shiiitt!" Gozu cursed as he was sent flying towards the air towards Boar. Boar then prepared himself for a slash that would cleave Gozu in half when he was near. However, before he could do this, a voice can be heard that changed everything.

"Water Technique: Water Tentacles!" Aki said and numerous tentacles made of water emerged and latched onto his limbs, restricting him, for a while. Aki channelled more chakra and the water tentacles ripped Boar's limb from his body.

Gozu had the unfortunate luck to smash into Boar's body which was suspended for a moment and send it flying a few feet away, screaming like mad at the intense pain.

"What the fuck?" Gozu quickly got up and screamed. "You-you just!"

"I what?" Aki asked and put a hand on her hip. Gozu looked at her for a moment before speaking.

"You're hot," Gozu said, almost drooling which caused Aki to scowl and turn away.

"Not now, moron!" Aki said.

Suddenly, another jet ski sped towards them, this time, two person was on board, struggling to throw each other off and gain control of the jet ski. After a short fight, Meizu managed to pin Rabbit's hand on the jet ski and tagged him with an explosive note before jumping away from the explosion.

"Where's the last one?" Meizu asked after he landed near them.

"I dunno, didn't see him," Gozu said and the three of them stared at each other for a second before running towards the ship.

Naruto were busy looking over the battlefield, checking to see if there's anyone needed his 'help'. But they were doing rather fine actually. He just hoped that the rest were doing fine, especially Haku.

He didn't realise that Viper had managed to get on board the ship and was walking towards him and unsheathed her kunai.

"One more...where are you?" Naruto said to himself.

"Right behind you," Viper said and slashed at him. Luckily for Naruto, his reflexes were a bit faster ever since he got zapped and managed to evade, albeit he got a small cut on his arm. Naruto then stumbled away while nursing his bleeding arm.

"I'm going to have my fun killing you monsters!" Viper said again and lunged at him. She managed to topple him onto the floor and stab her kunai at him. The kunai almost hit Naruto's eyes but he blocked it with his hand and the kunai pierced through.

The pain combined with the fact that she called him a monster was enough to anger him and send a powerful lightning chakra through her system. Viper screamed for a few seconds before she went silent and limp.

Naruto pushed her away before taking deep breaths while looking at the clear blue sky. "That makes 9. Haku, I hope you're safe,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Masanori attacked with an overhead slash which Zabuza parried with his sword. The two locked swords for a moment before Zabuza release a hand from his sword and punched Masanori in the face. Masanori staggered backwards and Zabuza slashed horizontally at him but Masanori managed to shield his body with his sword, sending him backwards and creating two small trenches from his feet.

"Damn it, I hate that fact about you and the other Swordsmen," Masanori said. "You guys must have ate fish-eating-steroids or something to be able to hold your sword with just one hand,"

Zabuza grunted at him. "Shows how different you are from the rest of the swordsmen," Zabuza said. The truth is, Masanori was a junior member of the 7 Swordsmen of Kiri. He only joined the organization about a year ago. Compared to the other Swordsmen's service year to the group, Masanori's was pretty much a rookie to them.

The sad thing about the 7 Swordsmen of Kiri was that the swords are much more valuable than the user. The user can be replaced, but not the swords. As such, the title was often transferred along with the sword and the sword can be passed in two ways.

Either willingly or not.

Masanori gained his by killing Hiramekarei's previous owner; Mangetsu. It wasn't a fair fight, of course and for Kiri, it was justified as Mangetsu was a Bloodline user.

"Still, doesn't change the fact that my sword is much stronger than yours," Masanori said and channelled wind chakra through the sword. A large axe made from wind emerged from the sword and Masanori slashed vertically at Zabuza who jumped away.

The ice field was split into two as the wind axe hit the ice floor. Zabuza grunted again. Another thing about the 7 Swords of the Swordsmen of Kiri was that each sword has their own perks and disadvantages.

His sword, the Executioner Sword was rather...weak when compared to the other swords. The sword looked normal and one glance at it, people will thought of it as just an oversized sword with a hole in it. However, it has a special ability; able to repair itself by using the blood of its victim. It was generally a maintenance free sword. Aside from that? Not much.

Hiramekarei however, was known as the elemental sword. While another sword, Kiba, the twin swords or also known as the Thunderswords were also able to channel elemental chakra but only lightning. Hiramekarei was not only able to channel almost all elemental chakra but manipulate them into forms much better than any other swords currently in existence. It specialises in chakra manipulation and transformation that currently, no other weapon was able to match and that includes his Executioner's Sword.

Zabuza jumped and dropped at his foe with a slash, but it was parried. Against other Swordsmen, Silent Killing and Hidden Mist technique were useless. So it's back to old school sword fighting.

Masanori pushed him away and slashed at him but this time, using a wind sword that was easily double the length of Hiramekarei. Zabuza channelled his chakra through his sword and blocked the attack.

Zabuza was thrown backwards quite hard but he dug his feet in the ice field to stop himself. Masanori wasn't finished as he sends a powerful torrent of water from his sword at Zabuza.

Zabuza stuck his sword to the ice floor in front of him with its flat facing him and stood behind it. The sword acted as the shield and weathered the attack while the ground cracked. "That's just like you Masanori, always steamroll over your foe with overwhelming force," Zabuza said and flashed through his handseals. "Water Technique: Water Dragon Bullet!"

A large water dragon smashed through the ice floor below Masanori but he jumped away before it managed to hit him. The dragon then gave chase to him but Masanori jumped and thrust his sword at the dragon with a wind sword coating his sword. His attack not only tore through the dragon but also collected some of the water and turned it into from a wind sword to maelstrom sword.

"Die!" Masanori screamed as he brought his maelstrom Hiramekarei crashing down on Zabuza. Zabuza jumped away as the attack hit the ice floor and destroyed much of the ice field.

Zabuza then emerged from the water to try and grab him but Masanori slashed at him, which cause it to melt into water. "Water Clones?" Masanori said and another Zabuza appeared behind him and attacked.

The two then traded slashes with each other, neither managed to cut. Then, a kunai came sailing at Masanori, who sidestepped, but it gave Zabuza the chance to strike him. Masanori avoided but was cut on the shoulder lightly by Executioner's tip. A few more kunais flew at him and he jumped away to avoid them. Masanori then looked around to see 3 more Zabuza's throwing the kunai's at him.

"I see...so you gave them your kunais, eh?" Masanori stated as Zabuza chased after him, and not only him too, but the clones.

"And I gave them my exploding tags too," Zabuza simply said as Masanori widened his eyes. The clones jumped in before Zabuza at him and the clones primed their exploding tags on their palm.

"Body Flicker!" Masanori quickly put Hiramekarei on his back and casted the Body Flicker technique as the explosion hit him. He then reappeared quite far away on a sheet of ice and was panting.

It seemed that the explosion managed to hit him before he escaped but not enough to be fatal. Stil, Masanori has numerous wounds on him and mostly are burns. "You...this is why I hate you," Masanori said weakly but Zabuza looked.

Zabuza grunted at him. "You always hate everything that pained you. What a wuss," Zabuza said.

Masanori snorted in reply. "Say what you want, but sometimes, cowards do survive. And I want to live,"

"And so am I," Zabuza said and made a handseal. Masanori's eyes widened again as he saw the handseal. It was the Snake seal, one use to detonate exploding tags. He then looked below him and saw exploding seals beneath the ice sheet.

During the fight, Zabuza's clones planted exploding tags beneath numerous ice sheets, creating 'landmines' and Masanori landed on one of them. Certain exploding tags can work when exposed to water but it depended on the quality of the seal, ink and paper. The worst quality exploding tags had their ink smudged when the paper was wet while the best ones can work even underwater albeit with severely reduced blast.

Still, the blast was enough to break the ice and send numerous ice shards at Masanori. Masanori jumped a second too late and was peppered with ice shards and even has a large one stuck on his ass.

A literal pain in the ass.

Masanori landed on water a second later and he was badly injured. Blood was leaking from him and dyed the water underneath him red. "Alright, that's it. I'm finishing this," Masanori said. Zabuza narrowed his eyes and ran at him. Masanori then created a large sword of wind and stabbed it into the water below him.

Zabuza then stopped as he saw what happened. "That-that's Kisame's technique!" Zabuza said.

Masanori chuckled a little. "Kisame ripped the technique from the original technique, from Mangetsu's. Behold, the ultimate water sword technique, the Great Maelstrom Enfolding Technique!" Masanori stated as his wind sword mixed with the water and formed into a maelstrom sword and it coated around Hiramekarei's blade until only the handle can be seen. Unlike the previous maelstrom sword, however, this one was much bigger.

It grew so big that the maelstrom sword bulged upwards; carrying Masanori with and it towered over Zabuza. Zabuza then steeled himself for the incoming attack. "Die for real this time, will you?" Masanori screamed and he jumped at Zabuza, his maelstrom sword slashed at him. The massive maelstrom sword was connected with the ocean and it dragged more and more water with it until a wave was following it. The attack was crashing at Zabuza with the force of a tsunami.

Before it could hit, however, the whole maelstrom suddenly froze including his hands and stopped the attack midway, causing Masanori to suspend in the air. "What the? Ah shit! I forgot about the ice user!" Masanori said loudly but it was too late.

Zabuza took the chance and jumped at Masanori and slashed horizontally. The attack connected at his stomach and split Masanori's upper half from his lower half. Zabuza then landed gracefully on the frozen wave behind Masanori.

"Fucckkk," Masanori said through gritted teeth as his leg fell and his innards spilled to the floor. "That's fucking painful!"

"Obviously," Zabuza said and shouldered his sword and walked below Masanori.

"God damn it. I was right. Bloodlines are monsters. Look what happened to me," Masanori said weakly.

"Shut up. You're just weak," Zabuza said coldly and Masanori chuckled weakly.

"Always the cold and harsh senpai, huh, Zabuza-senpai?" Masanori said and Zabuza looked annoyed. Ever since Masanori joined the Swordsmen league, he has been calling every swordsmen senpai. "Oh man, I guess...it wasn't my good day huh? You betrayed Yagura, I have to chase you...kill the trafficker, take his money...the bank's closed and I got split...into...half," Masanori said and finished with a chuckle before he died.

Zabuza only grunted at the Masanori. "Another Swordsmen dead. Oh well," Zabuza said and Haku appeared from behind a small ice spike. Haku slowly walked towards Zabuza and when she saw Masanori, she spilled the contents of her stomach to the ice floor.

"Unfreeze the sword, I want to take it," Zabuza said and Haku took a moment to collect herself and do what he ordered. Zabuza would have congratulated Haku for her fine job; she did in fact, had a hand for the death of a lot of people today. But then it would only make her hate think that the only thing she's good was killing and hate her abilities.

He couldn't have that. Not yet. After this, Haku could be his strongest tool yet against Yagura.

Masanori and Hiramekarei dropped to the floor with a 'thump!' Zabuza walked towards Masanori before something came to him.

"_kill the trafficker, take his money...the bank's closed,"_

Zabuza widened his eyes in surprise and quickly searched Masanori's pouches. After a minute of searching, he finally found it. It was a storage scroll that contains all of Ozu's money!

He couldn't believe his luck! His actions today in trying to assassinate Yagura caused the bank to close and made Masanori not able to store the money! And now, Zabuza got himself a fat load of cash, enough to fund for his army.

He then searched for another storage scroll, emptied it and stored Hiramekarei inside. "Alright, let's go kid. Time to start anew," Zabuza said with a somewhat happy tone and Haku could swear he grinned underneath his creepy bandage mask.

But Zabuza was right; time to start anew.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **Phew! You know, this chapter could have been posted much earlier if it weren't for the fight scenes. Fight scenes usually get me stuck for a long time. It was the reason why I hadn't updated my other stories yet. That and this chapter officially uses the most ANBU animal theme I've ever done. Seriously, I almost ran out on what animal to use before it starts to get ridiculous. In case you guys ask why the heck 20 ANBUs die so easily in this chapter, well, they do that a lot in canon, so yeah.

And actually, though they may use ANBU's animal theme, they aren't really ANBUs but rather Kiri's Hunter squad that specialises in hunting down Bloodlines and missing nins.

And no omake in this chapter, sorry. It was already very long, the longest chapter I've ever write. I'll put it in the next chapter.

Jutsus used:

**Lightning Technique: Lightning Blast – **Shoots a thick stream of lightning from the palm of the user's hand towards the enemy. Uses a lot of chakra but is powerful enough to go through multiple targets and killing them instantly.

**Lightning Technique: Lightning Shot – **Shoots a miniaturized version of the Lightning Ball faster albeit with reduced power.

**Water Technique: Water Launch – **Only works when the target is underwater. It manipulates water torrents to launch the target, most likely the user, above the surface at high speeds. Mainly a supportive technique used to get a target out of the water quickly.

**Water Technique: Whirpool – **Creates a whirlpool that sucks anything caught into the water.

**Water Technique: Water Tentacles – **Creates water tentacles from a source of water such as a puddle to be used offensively or supportively. The number of tentacles is limited by the user's skill and amount of water available. Also, the caster is not able to move during the technique's duration.

**Water Technique: Great Malestrom Enfolding Technique – **A technique created by the previous owner of Hiramekarei, Mangetsu Hozuki. The technique requires the use of both wind and water elemental manipulation to create a massive sword made of maelstrom to coat Hiramekarei. The user will then slash and send a massive tsunami powered slash at the target. This technique is derived from the Great Whirlpool Enfolding Technique. Requires a lot of water source nearby.

**Water Technique: Great Whirlpool Enfolding Technique – **A technique created by the previous owner of Hiramekarei, Mangetsu Hozuki. The origin technique for the Great Maelstrom Enfolding Technique but it is much weaker as it uses only water manipulation.


	5. Chapter 4: A New Start

**Author's Note: **Yosh! Finally a chapter up! Sorry for the extreme delay. I have been busy with a lot of things...job, Homestuck, Deus Ex...bla bla. That and my ideas have been a bit lazy in making me write, especially the intro for every chapter. Once I got over that hurdle, the chapter is pretty much underway.

And the weird thing is, my ideas is much more active when I have something important to do...like writing a report. Stupid ideas.

**Sandaime Hokage****: **Shorter fight scenes? I was worried it was too short! But long fight scenes are inevitable later on with the epic yeah...

**The Prologue has been edited by Firedamaged **and I have to tell you, he did a great job!

Anyway, here it is.

* * *

**CHAPTER 4: A New Start**

**Somewhere in Kirigakure seas **

The battle for freedom for the Bloodline children, missing ninjas and Kumo ninjas was finally over and the ship carrying them was able to sail away unimpeded.

The outcome of the battle wasn't so bad, with only the two male Kumo ninja suffered heavy damage, but not fatal. Heck, Zabuza also gained some sweet reward in the form of tons of cash and one of the Kiri's Seven Swordsmen's Swords; the Hiramekarei.

Still, nothing last forever and this included the somewhat uneasy alliance between the Kiri missing nins and Kumonins.

"So...guess this is goodbye then," Zabuza said in a bored tone while eating and apple with his right hand and his Executioner Sword in his left hand. He was sitting on an overturned barrel with Meizu and Gozu on both of his side.

Nao, one of the two Kumonnins grunted. Only the adults were on the deck while the children were resting inside the ship.

"Yeeaah..." Nao drawled and rubbed the back of his neck. He was rather unhappy with the whole situation. At first life seemed to be going well for him as he won a rather large sum of money from his lottery ticket, enough for him to quit being and live comfortably for a few years. But of course his greed got the better of him and he thought that maybe he could strike gold again.

But of course, life wasn't that charitable. Sometimes life goes your way, and sometimes life just kicks you in the balls.

His scheme involved buying and selling Bloodline children went rather horribly. Kiri and the famous Kirin nin, now a missing nin; Zabuza, caught wind of his plan. The end result?

He almost died and Zabuza hijacked his plan! Now he has the Bloodline children and a priceless sword to boot! And all he got for this was numerous stab wounds that would need months to recover. He and Susumu were lucky that Aki was a medic. But explaining to Kumo how they got their wounds was going to be a bitch.

"So, what are you guys waiting for? I'm not asking for you guys to swim, you can take the boat we got from the Kiri Hunter nins," Zabuza said.

"That's right, Zabuza-san, we're on our way now," Susumu said and tried to grab Nao's arm but he swatted his hand away.

"Dammit! If it weren't for me, all of you weren't able to escape from Kiri!" Nao stood up and pointed to Zabuza.

"And your point is?" Zabuza said and threw his finished apple into the ocean.

Nao 'tched' and said, "I went all the way from Kumo, got some life threatening wounds that's gonna make me not able to do missions and you expect me to go back penniless?"

"You summed it up just right. Got a problem with that?" Zabuza said and Nao scowled. He can't do anything in his condition. Heck, even if he's in perfect health, he doubted he could take on Zabuza and came out in one piece.

"What the fuck Nao? Do you think they have any money with them to give to you? They're going to need it more than you do! What, do you think that Zabuza is going to give you the sword? Or some of the children?" Susumu said angrily.

Nao balled his fist in anger. Susumu was right. He can't ask anything of value from them.

If only the Kumo nin knew that Zabuza DID in fact has a large sum of money with him. Nao's money actually.

"What are you going to do with the children?" Aki asked worriedly.

"I'm not going to sell them, that's for sure," Zabuza said nonchalantly.

"But...how are you, a missing nin, is going to take care of them?" Aki asked again. She was worried for the children because as far as she knew, Zabuza might be no different from the people who sold the children in the first place.

"That's for me to decide," Zabuza simply replied.

"What! What gives you the right! They're much better at Kumo than-"

"Where they will be trained to become ninjas and kill people and get killed. Which is no different from what I'm going to do them," Zabuza said, surprising the Kumonins.

"What are you planning?" Aki asked in a dangerous tone but it didn't affect Zabuza. He has faced woman much more dangerous than Aki.

"And that is not for you; a foreign ninja to know," Zabuza replied, but Aki realised what Zabuza had planned.

"You- you're making them your own private army, aren't you?" Aki asked.

"Well, since you've figured out much of my basic plan already, so I'll humor you. Yes, I'm going to train them so that I can attempt a second coup," Zabuza said.

"What! That's suicide!" Aki exclaimed.

"Not when they're ready and I'm going to make sure they will be ready," Zabuza shot back and narrowed his eyes at her. "And as far as I'm concerned, the children weren't the topic of our discussion. The topic was about you Kumonins leaving us the fuck alone,"

At the word 'fuck' Meizu and Gozu went in a battle stance and the Kumonins knew that Zabuza's patience was running thin.

"And I was even charitable enough to give you a boat to do so. And that's because I owe you Kumonins for our escape and the children. If it wasn't I'd cut you up to pieces-" Zabuza pointed his Executioner Sword at the male Kumonins. "-and let my boys have fun with you," Zabuza then pointed his sword at Aki, who paled.

Gozu let out a small chuckle. Aki must thought that Zabuza meant rape as their fun but actually it was not. They may not be saints but they're not completely evil either. The fun meant actually was very different involving a-

"But if you're so worried about the kids, then why don't you do something about it?" Zabuza said and Aki knew what he meant. She already tried to talk him for the kids and it didn't work. The other option left was to either fight him to the death or...join him.

"Aki, let's go. There's nothing we could do about it," Susumu said and put a hand on her shoulder. Aki closed her eyes and thought about it for a while. If she followed him, then Kumo might make her a missing nin and brought more heat to the children. And even if she followed him, there's no guarantee that Zabuza will bend to her way of handling the children.

Aki bit her lip and turned away and walked towards their boat. "Nao, you too," Susumu added with a feeling of relief. For a moment he thought that he might lose Aki.

Nao didn't budge an inched and Susumu sighed. "Fine, do what you want. You already lost a lot today, but at least not everything. If you want to lose more than you have, be my guess," Susumu said and walked away.

Zabuza sighed and reached into his pocket and took out a small scroll. "Here, it's not much, but it'll do," Zabuza said and threw the scroll at Nao who took it.

Zabuza has already divided the large sum of money into smaller portions and stored it into different scrolls for safety. It wasn't wise to put all your eggs in one basket after all.

"Now we're even," Zabuza said and Nao grudgingly nodded and walked away.

"So...what do we do boss?" Meizu asked.

"The kid said that he has contacts in Wave, so that's where we will go," Zabuza said and Meizu nodded.

"Might be a few days till we reach there," Meizu stated and Zabuza got up.

"Don't bother me until then," Zabuza said and went into the ship. Meizu and Gozu looked at each other and sighed. This means that the both of them were going to do much of the work on the ship.

Well, actually, it was always like that between them and Zabuza, but oh well. Zabuza probably was planning what they're going to do next during and the Demon Brothers isn't going to get in his way. Zabuza's the brain and they're just the limbs.

Granted, that Zabuza might not be the best planner, but hey, compared to them, he was the best they have.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Konohagakure**

Things weren't going so well for Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Professor Ninja and Third Hokage. And all of it was because of one person, Naruto Uzumaki.

It has been more than three months that his unofficial grandson has gone missing to kami-knows-where. And the worst part was that he doesn't even know whether he was alive or not.

Sarutobi was currently in his office, viewing his crystal ball that allows him to see things far away. Unfortunately, far away only covers the Land of Fire and try as he might every day, Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

Sarutobi sighed and leaned back into his chair and rubbed his temple. It didn't help that the council and the whole village wasn't so ecstatic about Naruto's disappearance either.

_Flashback, a few days after Naruto's disappearance._

"He what?" Jiraiya, the Toad Sage and one of the three Legendary Ninjas said loudly.

"He did as what I described. He got hit by a mother-of-all lightning, turned into one and zapped away," Sarutobi said in his serious tone and Jiraiya knew that he wasn't kidding.

Jiraiya then slumped into the Hokage's guest chair and rubbed his face while Sarutobi eyed him. "How? I never heard anyone turned into lightning before. Coat themselves with electricity, yes but not lightning. Even though the ninja world called the Lightning Techniques **lightning**,they are not really lightning. They're just electricity," Jiraiya said weakly.

It was the truth. The thing is, electricity is still **new **to the ninja world. They knew lightning first because it occurred naturally. Only with recent discovery and invention of electronic devices did they discover electricity.

It was then that the ninja world knew how wrong it was to associate their Lightning Techniques with real lightning. They just don't compare with the real thing. Only a very few could compare, like Kakashi's Raikiri. However, for the sake of convenience, they didn't bother changing the name of Lightning to Electricity Techniques.

"It was the Kyuubi," Sarutobi simply said and Jiraiya looked up to him with a worried look.

"You don't think-?" Jiraiya asked worriedly.

"Before he disappeared...no teleported, he released eight tails," Sarutobi answered and Jiraiya's face color was matching his hair's. "I'm not sure if something happened to the seal. That's why I need you to go and find him,"

"So here's the thing Jiraiya, I'm assigning you an S-Ranked mission; find Naruto Uzumaki. There's a chance that the lightning might have done something to the seal and change it for the better or for the worst. Also, people could find and use him. We can't let that happen,"

Jiraiya sighed. Although Sarutobi was in his 'Hokage Mode' and may sounded like he doesn't care for Naruto as a person, but in reality, Sarutobi Hiruzen was worried sick.

Meanwhile, Sarutobi eyed his student for any other reaction. He knew that Jiraiya was worried for the boy too and what's worse, he's feeling regret. Regret that he wasn't there when Naruto needed him the most.

The thing is, Minato made Jiraiya Naruto's godfather and by right, after the death of Naruto's parents, Jiraiya was supposed to care for him. Naruto became his responsibility.

But Jiraiya ran away from that responsibility.

His reason for it was many; Konoha needed his spy networks more after the Kyuubi's attack, that his job would take him out of Konoha most of the time and it would put him in danger.

But Sarutobi knew that his job excuse was a lie to the truth; that Jiraiya was not ready to be a father. In all his life and perverted ways, he never had a serious relationship; a relationship that could build him a home other than Konoha. In all of his life, he only knew of being a ninja, and not a husband or a father.

Sure, he might screw up if he took care of Naruto, but nobody's perfect. Jiraiya has already given up on the prospect of being a father to Naruto before he even tried.

But, regardless of the reason, responsibility wasn't something to be tossed away when you don't feel like doing it.

Responsibility wasn't about whether you want to do it or not, or whether you like it or not. It's about how well you do it. That's the only choice you have about responsibility. Just like how Sarutobi was forced to become the Hokage during the Second War in the middle of a battle and again when Minato died even though he didn't want to and just want to enjoy his retirement.

And although his track record with Naruto wasn't very stellar, at least he did something and showed Naruto that he cared and that Naruto has someone that wanted him to be happy.

Sure, Jiraiya will be busy with his spy work and couldn't spend all year with Naruto, but the least he could do was tell Naruto he got a godfather and check him up once in a while.

He didn't. All he did was watch Naruto from far, never interact with him directly. Jiraiya, as far as Naruto was concerned, was non-existant.

Needless to say, Sarutobi was very disappointed in his student. He hoped that Jiraiya could redeem himself and Naruto could forgive him.

"Alright, I will do my best," Jiraiya got up and was heading towards the door when Sarutobi spoke and stopped him in his tracks.

"Jiraiya, try not to fail again," Sarutobi said and Jiraiya clenched his fist before leaving without a word.

Now that the matter of searching for Naruto was done (he didn't trust anyone to handle Naruto), it was time to handle the pain-in-the-back council.

******#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Konohagakure Council Chamber**

"What happened to Naruto?" Tsume Inuzuka asked and Sarutobi sighed.

Sarutobi now came at a very difficult situation. What should he tell the village about Naruto? They didn't know that he became lightning and tele-fucking-ported out of the village.

If he told them the truth, they would freak the fuck out. They would think that nothing could kill him and in the ninja world, if it doesn't kill you, it will only make you stronger and angrier. A super strong demon kid with a rage and vengeance against them isn't good. Who knows, maybe they would force him to declare him a missing nin, and send ninjas to kill him.

Or he could bluff, and tell them that Naruto died. That would make the village happy and some of the council. They would surely celebrate for a week straight, that's for sure. But then, should Naruto live, it could be used against him.

The village would be pissed if he returns. Danzo would no doubt would try and search for the boy, regardless whether he was alive or not and should he found him, could use his deceased status to the fullest.

But, if Naruto decides that he doesn't want to return, it could work for him.

"He's alive, but in critical condition and currently in a coma," Sarutobi replied and most of the council members looked livid.

The civilian council looked dissatisfied that he didn't die while the ninja council looked horrified that such a thing could befall a young child and lived.

Tsume growled and slammed her fist on the table. Most of the civilian council members jumped a little and looked at her. She then crossed her chest and leaned into her chair.

For years she tried to adopt Naruto but Sarutobi wouldn't allow it. He's reasoning was for balance of power between the clans as if he allowed Naruto to be adopted into the Inuzuka, the other clan, especially the Hyuuga and the Uchiha would bitch about it.

Besides, although Tsume, Hana and Kiba might be ok with Naruto, the other Inuzuka members might not. Sure, loyalty is their thing, but not everybody shared the same mindset.

They're individuals with different needs and wants and not a copy paste of a person. He has at least found several Uchihas that's not a prick like the rest of their clan.

It was with that mindset that Sarutobi let Naruto into the public. He hoped that people would see Naruto for who he was, even if it were very few people that did so. He also wanted at least a civilian or ninja family that was clan-less to adopt him. He wants Naruto to be loyal to the people, the village and not to the clan like the Uchihas.

It might sounded naive with a lot of probability of things going bad, but he has to at least try. And so far, he was disappointed with the people he was supposed to protect.

"His physical recovery won't take long, thanks to the Kyuubi-" several members made some weird noises but Sarutobi ignored them, "-but it will take a while for him to wake up from his coma,"

'Well, at least until he's found anyway,' Sarutobi thought.

"Until then, for his own protection from would be assassins-" Sarutobi said with a smile towards his council members and released his killer intent, "-he would be placed in a specialised care in a secret location that only a few is privy of,"

Everyone was affected by the killer intent released by Sarutobi. The ninja side shivered and some even was sweating like crazy while the civilian side...well, some literally crapped in their pants.

"Dismissed," Sarutobi simply said and got up and left and was followed by the ninja side a few moments later.

Danzo, while slowly walking back to his home, was thinking furiously. 'Dammit! Stupid Sarutobi! Had he gave me the boy to train him, none of this would have happen! Regardless, the fact that he survived and with Kyuubi's healing, he might come out stronger. And since he's in a coma, he might wake up with memory loss.

Wait, why hope he gets a memory loss when it can be done?' Danzo thought with a smile.

All he needs to do was to find where the kid is...

He's not the only one looking, though.

_Flashback end..._

'Naruto...where are you?' Sarutobi thought with a sigh.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Wave, 5 days after Naruto disappeared**

Terumi Mai and Mei were worried sick and this is because their only blonde family member was nowhere to be found. Although at times it could be hard trying to find him as he tended to stray around, he always return at a timely manner to eat with the family.

It was easier for him to find you than you trying to find him.

"Do you think that someone could have found out who he was and take him away?" Mai said in a worried tone.

"Possible," Takeshi replied. "That or something went wrong with his training and he could have turned into lightning and teleported away from here,"

Mai nodded at the possibility. Naruto turning into lightning was his forte after all but it's just that they didn't train him in that area yet. All this time they have been teaching him chakra control so that he wouldn't discharge electricity involuntarily.

"If that happened, then-" Mai said but Mei cut her off.

"I'm going to search for him again," she said and hurriedly walked away from them.

Takeshi and Mai looked at each other with worried looks. Wherever Naruto was, they hoped that he's safe and sound.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Wave Port**

Mei decided that the best place to search for Naruto was probably the port, seeing that the only way out of Wave is by boat or ship, and Naruto couldn't swim for his life. And if he was kidnapped, there's no sense keeping him here as people would be looking for him, like what Mei was doing.

She was currently sitting on a crate, listening to people's conversations, hoping to hear any relevant keywords in them that might relate to Naruto. So far, she didn't have much luck.

That and men at the port kept pestering her, thinking that she was a call girl for horny men that has been on sea for days. Most of them were handled easily enough with her trademark sweet smile, glare and death threats, but she didn't have the time to handle all of them.

If only she could wear her headband, then things will be easier. A lot of civilian men were very afraid of kunoichis due to the rumors that their saliva and vagina were poisonous. It was partially true though as some kunoichi used that tactics but Mei never has the need for it. Well, her saliva **can **be more dangerous than poison.

So, she took out her kunai and played with it skilfully, essentially giving a sign that says 'I'm a kunoichi, bitch, and even if I'm not, I can cut you up just as good,' and sure enough, men stopped approaching her.

And then, she heard familiar voices...

"Gozu, guard the ship and prep it for immediate departure. Meizu, stock up. Kid, show me where your contact is," the voice said.

'That-that voice! Zabuza!' Mei thought.

"Ok, follow me!" a cheerful voice said and Mei knew very well who it belongs to. Mei then quickly got up and went towards the voice and a few moments later, she bumped into Naruto.

"Ouw!" Naruto said as he stumbled backwards and he bumped into Zabuza next. He then rubbed his face and began his quick apology, "Sorry lady, I'm still short so that's why you can't see-Mei!"

Zabuza, who was busy watching the boy and pushing him back forward after he bumped into him, was equally surprised. "Mei?" he said and looked directly into the face of an angry Mei Terumi, one of the very few faces that he really didn't like to see angry.

"Me," Mei said simply and Naruto flashed his ear-splitting smile.

"Ooooh! Was that a pun?" Naruto said. This caused Mei's visible eyebrow to twitch and she pinched Naruto's cheek.

"_I'm glad you're okay, Naruto-kun," _Mei said in her sweet voice that Zabuza recognize all too well and involuntarily caused him to shiver a bit.

"I canh exbplain!" Naruto said with difficulty at having his mouth distorted by the pinch.

"Well, you better!" Mei said and released the blonde boy and look at Zabuza. They both stared at each other for a few seconds before Mei turned away. "Let's go,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Terumi's rented house**

"You what?" the Terumis shouted in unison at hearing Naruto's first part of the explanation, namely, where he'd been.

Zabuza's ears ringed at their outburst and his eye twitched a bit. Geez, these people, they don't have to be so dramatic. Granted, he was also surprised about the kid's ability to turn into lightning, but he didn't scream.

"What?" the Terumis shouted again, this time at the part where Naruto, Kumo nins, Bloodline children and the missing nins got into a battle for their freedom.

"And then we met the Flying Ramen Monster and it spit out a bucket load of ramen into the sea and that the sea was miso soup and then I jumped into the sea and ate the ramen," Naruto added.

"WHa-wait, what?" the Terumis, including Zabuza asked Naruto with a confused look.

"Oh...wait, that was my dream. I guess I kinda craved ramen too much and it got to my head," Naruto said sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. Zabuza and Mei's eyebrow twitched a bit while Mai sighed with a smile.

"Fine, let's get you some ramen then," Mai said.

"Can the other kids have it too?" Naruto asked and Mai smiled at him.

"Of course," Mai replied and took out a handful of cash and hand it to Naruto. "Now Naruto, you go straight towards the ramen stand, to the ship and after that, straight back here, do you get me?"

"Yes!" Naruto beamed and went off, leaving the Terumis and Zabuza in the house.

Zabuza and Takeshi stared at each other for a few minutes, each seeming evaluating each other. They both have known each other for very long time, ever since Zabuza was a Genin. That was because Zabuza, Mangetsu and Mei were the same Genin team with Takeshi as their instructor.

Zabuza however didn't receive his Genin team for a year because of him killing the other students. Mei and Mangetsu became his teammate later on. Takeshi was grateful for Zabuza though, as his action caused the practice of students killing each other to become a ninja to be discontinued. If it hadn't, Mei might have not been here right now.

Takeshi then spoke first. "So...I heard your coup failed?"

"Yes. I thought that you guys were dead," Zabuza said. Unless with specific orders, Hunter nins would usually burn the bodies of the target but bring back the head as proof. Kiri saw no use for the bodies of those that possess Bloodline so they would burn on the spot. Also, Zabuza wasn't involved in the Bloodline Hunt, so he didn't know that the Terumis survived.

"Bah! It won't be that easy to kill us," Takeshi replied. "So what are you going to do with the kids? You're not the type to give up on something after the first try,"

"You're right. I'm going to train them to start a rebellion to finish what I started," Zabuza answered and Mei looked away. She didn't like the idea of using the kids but at the moment, they don't have much of a choice.

"I see..." Takeshi said.

"What about you guys? Is your rebellion still going strong?" Zabuza asked. The Kiri Rebellion was formed a long time ago, ever since Mei was a Genin. They have been hiding in secret to gather their strength until it was time for them to strike.

Originally, their aim was to initiate a coup like Zabuza's, striking from the inside and taking out the Kiri's Goverment in one swoop. Sadly however, they were discovered prematurely and Kiri decided to destroy most of them during the Bloodline Purge. The Purge was the genocide of countless Bloodline clans done by Kiri during the night of heavy thunderstorm, which gave Mei her phobia of thunderstorm. Luckily, Naruto helped her overcome it.

"Not really, we lost a lot when we were discovered," Takeshi said sadly. "That pretty much ruled out the possibility of rebellion from the inside. And your coup doesn't help much either. If only you've waited, Zabuza, then things will be much easier,"

"I didn't know you guys were alive. And besides, if I didn't do what I did, your kid won't have much luck escaping from Kiri," Zabuza replied.

Takeshi snorted at this. "Yeah, so I guess things worked out for the better in the end. It's funny, with Naruto you know. It's as if it was fated for him to get into Kiri and meet you,"

Zabuza let out a hmph and look away. He was not the type to believe in fate and destiny. He was more of the 'you decide and make your own fate' guy. But from the string of events that occurred, was starting to make him rethink his view.

"It was fate!" Mai said happily. She believed wholeheartedly in fate. Naruto's meeting with them and Zabuza cemented her beliefs. "Anyway, it's useless talking about things that has happened. About Kiri, that means we have to attack Kiri from outside. A full out civil war," Mai said and everyone nodded.

"How long do you think we will be ready?" Zabuza asked Takeshi.

"From our condition, it will take a long time; 6-8 years I guess," Takeshi replied. "We need to round up the rest of the Rebellion and find a new place to establish our base. One that's not far or too close from Kiri,"

"What about..." Mei started. She was thinking about Naruto when suddenly, an idea came to her. "Uzu?"

Everyone turned to look at her but Zabuza looked away and crossed his arms.

"It won't work, Konoha would have patrols guarding it," Zabuza said and Mai suddenly smiled **sweetly** at Zabuza, which, kinda creep him out.

"Do you know Naruto?" Mai asked and Zabuza nodded.

"Yeah, the lightning kid. What about him?" Zabuza replied. This time, Takeshi and Mei smiled too.

"Well, he's an Uzumaki," Mai said and Zabuza looked shocked.

"And not only that, he's the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze," Takeshi added and Zabuza looked even more shocked.

The Terumis already knew who Naruto's father was because the resemblance was spot on. They even proved this theory by having the girls apply make up on him to hide the whiskers and grow his hair out and compare him with the picture of the Yellow Flash.

Needless to say, they were surprised. But they didn't know who his mother was yet.

However, they haven't told Naruto yet of this news. Mainly because Naruto would be devastated to learn that the person who put the Kyuubi inside him was his own father and. That and it could be that Naruto wasn't Minato's son and rather he was just a look alike, like a doppelganger.

They didn't want him to be sad again. They decided that they will tell him after he's older and before their planned invasion on Kiri. This was their war and not his.

Anyway, back to Zabuza...

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Zabuza said loudly.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Kirigakure**

The Fourth Mizukage was sitting in his office, unmoving like a statue while a masked figure was staring out of his window. A figure then emerged from the shadows and approached the masked man. The figure was even weirder than the man as he has half body coloured white while the other was coloured black.

"**It seems that we've lost a lot of people in the chase after Zabuza," **the black part, known as Black Zetsu said.

"We even lost a Swordsman and the sword! Man, I'm telling you, Kiri's forces are starting to suck!" the white part, White Zetsu said.

"It seems so," the masked man replied. "Kiri's worth is nearing its end. I think it's time we move somewhere else,"

Both Zetsus nodded in unison.

"Still, Kiri still has its uses. Might as well stay and suck it dry," the man said. "Do you have any new news about the Host of Kyuubi?"

"**Well, he's still in a coma. And we still don't know where he is exactly," **Black Zetsu said.

"Man, if we knew where he is, we could kidnap him! He's in a coma and we can make him a permanent vegetable! Like us! Well not literally. That would make things easier!" White Zetsu said.

"True. But still, keep searching for his whereabouts. I don't like being in the dark," the man said and a single eyehole on the mask suddenly glowed, showing a Sharingan.

'Even though you hide yourself in the dark?' White Zetsu pondered.

"Ye**s" **both Zetsus said and retreated into the shadows.

"Naruto Uzumaki...I should have killed you right in front of your father that day. If I did, things could have been so different, isn't it?" the man said. "No matter, that mistake will be corrected,"

A swirl in space time appeared and consumed the man, starting from his eye and in a second, he was gone from the room. The Mizukage then moved again and resumed his paperwork in a robot-like manner.

* * *

**Omake**

**UsagiNin Adventures! Part 2**

Nami hopped happily into her house yard and went to the rabbit's pen. She looked at the pen for a moment for her rabbit when she saw the rabbit, named Godzilla, she happily hopped in place.

"Godzilla! I brought you a new frieeeendd!" she said happily and Godzilla looked at her hands which held a brown rabbit with black eyes. Nami then placed the rabbit right in front of Godzilla.

"Godzilla, meet Rexzilla," Nami said and Godzilla's ear twitch a bit. "Rexzi, meet Godzilla or you could call him Godzi!"

Nami then patted both of them on the head. "Now, get along both of you! We'll play together later, 'k?" Nami said and hopped away happily.

The moment Nami was out of sight, Godzilla jumped backwards towards a small tree sapling. "You!"

"Me," Rexzilla simply replied and picked up a carrot to munch on. "So...what's going on?"

"I'll tell you what's going on! You were Senju's pet!" Godzilla said and activated his Sharingan.

"I was?" Rexzilla tilted his head to the side. "I didn't know, since you know, Senjus don't have much to define them like the Uchihas, aside from the name,"

"Doesn't matter! You will die!" Godzilla said and pulled out the tree sapling from the ground which turned out to be...a small long wooden sword. Actually, it didn't resemble a sword very much. More like a sharpened stick.

"Oh wow, you did that?" Rexzilla asked in amazement.

"...there's not much to do here, you know," Godzilla replied.

"Yeah... I remembered I used to carve figures out of my carrots," Rexzilla said in a bored voice.

"Well, looks like I will carve death on your body!" Godzilla said and leapt at the other rabbit with a downward slash!

Rexzilla then caught the blade with his carrot stick, which got stuck halfway. He then took this advantage and bit the sword in half. Godzilla jumped backwards with the broken sword still stuck to the carrot stick. He then removed the carrot stick away.

Rexzilla then took the broken blade and brandish it in front of him. "Now we're even," Rexzilla said.

"Yes we are," Godzilla smirked and held his sword with his mouth and ran at Rexzilla (I don't think rabbits can run with only two legs...).

Rexzilla then prepared himself for his counterattack and...

"Rexzi! How are you doing with Godzi? I hope Godzi isn't bullying you," Nami said happily and found both of her rabbits...

...playing with sticks. And it was weird too because they were using the sticks to hit each other's sticks.

"What are you guys doing?" Nami said and looked at them curiously. The rabbits didn't stop though.

"Well, I admit it is cute, but it's all fun and games until you lose an eye poking at each other," Nami said and suddenly Godzilla looked horrified, threw away his stick and covered his eye with both of his hands.

Nami raised an eyebrow at this. "Huh, that's strange, it's as if you understood what I said...but that is SO CUTEEE!" Nami squealed at Godzilla's action of covering his eyes in fear.

Rexzilla, upon hearing the ear shattering scream, also threw away his stick and covered his ears. Name noticed this and squealed again, claiming that she has the cutest rabbit ever.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **Dum-du-dum! It seems that there might be more to Zabuza and Mei's relationship! Naruto has started to affect the people that he met! And the small Rebellion is heading towards Uzu to establish their base! Will it work?

I've wrote the chapter, and now, it is your turn readers! Write me a review!


	6. Chapter 5: The Strength of Words

**Author's Note: **Ha! a fast update! And wow, recent Naruto chapters have major PLOT TWISTS like a pretzel. And it is delicious...in a way. More about it on the bottom.

**Kyuubi27: **Yeah, I made this story with that purpose in mind; a serious story with some crack in it. I'm glad you're like it so far. I assure you, I will try to keep the quality.

* * *

**CHAPTER 5: The Strength of Words**

**Wave**

It has been quite a while since Naruto was in Wave but this was the first time that he realised something about the island.

It has no bridges to connect it to the mainland.

He never noticed it before because ever since he and the Terumis arrived here, he didn't go anywhere outside of Wave except his Kiri episode. That and he was busy training to control his chakra.

Now, usually, for a normal person, this wasn't a problem. But he wasn't a normal person! Even though his chakra controls has improved, it still wasn't enough to prevent him from shocking himself if he got into large bodies of water. In a way, without a boat and using his Blitz mode (his lightning form), he was grounded on the island.

"You should build a bridge, old man!" Naruto said to an old man wearing glasses in front of him. He was playing with a two year old boy.

"And why would I do that?" the man, Tazuna said and he cooed little Inari.

"Because you're a bridge builder! That's what you do!" Naruto replied and Tazuna rolled his eyes.

"Yes I know I'm a brigde builder but that doesn't mean I should just build one when I feel like it," Tazuna answered.

"Well, because it will be easier for people to get in and out from the island!" Naruto said again.

"We have boats for that," Tazuna countered and he threw a laughing Inari into the air before capturing him.

"What if people don't want to use boats? Or if you can't use it?" Naruto countered back and Tazuna sighed.

"Look kid, I believe in your point of Wave needing a bridge for convenience. But it is not up to me to decide to build it. The people of Wave don't want it because some of the people here make their living ferrying people and goods," Tazuna stated the facts. "If there's a bridge, people won't want to use the ferry boats and people will lose their income,"

"So? Just charge the people that use the bridge then! But for the citizens, it will be free or for a reduced price," Naruto said.

"And I'm sure the money will go to the bridge's maintenance fees and not to the people," Tazuna said while dodging Inari's attempt to swat his glasses away.

"So you guys don't want to build bridges because of monetary reasons and not of convenience? I can't believe you guys! What would happen if you need to get to the mainland because of emergencies but you can't because there's a storm?" Naruto said in frustration. He can't believe the people of Wave can be that idiotic. Sure they would lose a business but that's not the end of the world. There must be some other thing they can do.

Tazuna realised that fact but the people of Wave didn't care much about going to the mainland when there's a storm as the distance was quite short. That and the number of deaths because of it were low so the people of Wave didn't think they need a bridge.

"Harp all you want kid, but it's not up to me," Tazuna said with finality.

"Fine," Naruto sighed and his shoulders slumped before he went away.

"I got a feeling that the people of Wave are going to regret not building a bridge," Tazuna said. "But, I can't do anything about it," and he resumed playing with little Inari.

After Naruto was finished doing he all he could about the bridge, he then went back to the ship to play with the children. It was very rare for him to meet children of around his age that were willing to play with him.

Granted that they didn't know the truth about him being a Host but the children were happy to accept him as one of their own, seeing that he was the reason they managed to get away from being another man's slave.

That and Naruto managed to make them join in his obsession of ramen!

Well, that was until they tasted Mai's cooking, that is.

After a while, Mei and Mai came to the ship and Mei called Naruto out to talk while Mai talked to the children about what they are going to do.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Naruto-kun..." Mei started and sat down and Naruto did the same beside her. "You really had us worried, you know. What were you thinking before you got yourself zapped to Kiri?" Mei glowered at him.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry, I guess I didn't thought that it would happen the way it did,"

"And it did, and not only that, it was the worst case scenario!" Mei scolded. "Of all the places in the world, you landed on Kiri! You could've been killed or made into a slave!"

"Sorry..." Naruto apologized again and looked down. He never did anything like this before that worried the Terumis so much. Sure, the things that he did sometimes can be considered extreme like pranking them really hard but it was still considered acceptable.

Mei saw that Naruto truly learnt his lesson and decided to stop lecturing him. She then rubbed his back and smiled at him.

"You have to remember now Naruto, you're not alone anymore. Your actions will affect those that cared about you," Mei said and Naruto looked sad again.

"Yeah...about that, I wondered what they were doing..." Naruto said while thinking about the people that cared about him at Konoha.

Mei's smile faltered and she steeled herself for what she was about to do. "Naruto..."

"Yes?" Naruto said and looked at her.

"Well, the thing is...me, my family, Zabuza and his lackeys are going to start a Rebellion force to retake Kirigakure from Yagura," Mei explained.

"Oh. Okay," Naruto replied simply. Mei was shocked at first at seeing Naruto's nonchalant reaction but she figured that he must have figured their intent long ago.

"The thing is Naruto; you have to make a choice now. Sooner or later, those that are involved in the Rebellion will have to fight...and kill. If you stay with us...you might have to do those things," Mei explained.

Naruto understood what Mei meant. If he wanted a fighting and killing free life, it was impossible with the Terumis and he would have to leave them. He could go back to Konoha where there are people that still cared for him. Or he could just go anywhere he wanted to.

But the thing is, it was next to impossible for a truly peaceful life. Not in this world. Because of his status, people would come for him, either with good intentions or not. And besides, he has already killed before.

"No, I want to stay with you guys," Naruto said with his ear splitting, teeth flashing smile.

Mei couldn't help but smile. "Are you sure Naruto? This isn't an easy choice,"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I've seen how Kiri was. It was much worse than Konoha. But in Konoha, no matter what I do, majority of the people still hate me and it won't change their life much. But when we save the children from Kiri, it felt good! I managed to make a difference to a lot of lives!"

Mei smiled. Truthfully, she was glad that Naruto ended up in Kiri, because if he didn't, who knows what might have happened to the Bloodline children. Zabuza might have found another way to escape, and probably without the children.

Mei sighed and ruffled his hair which annoyed Naruto. "Enjoy it for as long as you can, because when I hit my growth spurt, you won't be able to!" Naruto said.

"With all the ramen you're eating, you won't have any growth spurt!" Mei laughed and Naruto just huffed and crossed his chest.

"Naruto, thank you," Mei stopped her laugh and said. "For staying and helping the children," Naruto beamed at this but then his smile faltered.

"You're going to ask them to join the Rebellion too, aren't you?" Naruto asked and Mei's head dropped.

"Yes...we will give them a choice like what I did to you before," Mei said. "If they didn't want to have any part of it, then we will drop them somewhere; maybe here, or Konoha or maybe Kumo,"

"Would Zabuza allow that? I mean, I didn't know him long but he strike me as a little bit evil," Naruto asked worriedly but Mei flashed her dangerous smile.

"He didn't have a say in the matter, because my parents and **me**outranks him in every way, even though we don't have an official chain of command yet," Mei said rather happily which caused Naruto to sweat a little.

"Err...what do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Well, the truth is...me, Zabuza and Mangetsu were in the same Genin team back then. And your stepfather who is also my father...Takeshi, was our sensei," Mei said and Naruto 'ooh'ed. "And I'm the team leader and I can kick his ass from Monday to Sunday,"

Naruto released another 'ooh' again but this time longer and his eyes bulged a bit. "Okay, wow, girl power! Hehe," Naruto said with a punch to the air.

"Yes, that's right," Mei smiled. "I'm the team leader because Mangetsu is a bit reserved. He's the opposite of his brother and Zabuza wasn't...a people's person"

"Really? His lackeys seemed loyal to him," Naruto asked and Mei sighed.

"That's because the Demon Brothers are almost like him. A little loose in the head. And to think that I used to date him," Mei said and this caused Naruto to look at her suspiciously.

"Whaaa? Seriously?" Naruto said with a hint of jealously.

"Yes, but it didn't work out at all. He's not the least bit of romantic! On our fist date he didn't bother to dress up nicely and instead just wore his uniform! I even bought a really beautiful dress! When we walk together it was like I'm walking with a bodyguard instead of my date! I felt really stupid that day," Mei ranted.

"I even dragged him to a store to get him some decent clothing! And he refused, saying that that's what he is and if I can't accept that then I shouldn't be having the date! It was...stupid because he's the one that asked me out!" Mei added. "The date was pretty much ruined before it got anywhere,"

Naruto 'ooh' again and felt really relieved.

"That and he is too...utilitarian; willing to do and use anything to achieve his goal, especially human resources. Do you know what I mean?" Mei said and Naruto nodded.

"I guess that the things he have to do before he became a Genin...destroyed much of his humanity," Mei said with a distant look. Naruto knew she meant. During his time with the Demon Brothers, the duo told him Zabuza's story to scare him.

"But sometimes I wondered if he has any before he did those things," Mei said and Naruto chuckled nervously.

"You were lucky that you brought him to us, if not..." Mei poked Naruto's forehead.

"You guys are the only ones I have," Naruto said with a smile.

"Anyway, there's another thing that I want to ask you. Do you know about the Uzumakis?" Mei asked and Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, my clan right? You told me before about them. What about it? Did you find more Uzumakis?" Naruto asked excitedly, happy at the thought of another family member.

"Well...no," Mei replied rather guiltily. "You know that they have their own land, the Land of Whirlpools, right?"

Naruto nodded. "So...you wanna use their land? I'm okay with it," he shrugged.

"Really?" Mei asked.

"Yeah, and besides, even if I said no, you guys would still go there, right?" Naruto said with a grin.

"Yeah...that's true," Mei smiled rather guiltily.

"Anyway, enough of this, we have to check on mom," Mei got up and went to the ship followed and Naruto followed her.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

When Mai entered the ship, the children became quiet and focused their attention to her. It seems that the children were well 'disciplined.

And this made her sad. It was because that they have been conditioned to follow and adult's orders without questions, or pay a heavy price. This means that if she asked them to join the Rebellion, they would do it, regardless of what they feel. The truth was, she didn't want them to join but at the same time, she wanted them to at least fight for their home. Regardless, she will not stop or force them.

Mai then smiled and introduced herself before asking the children to do the same to break the ice. After a while and remembering their names she then braced herself for what she was about to do.

Mai cleared her throat and prepared herself for what she was about to do. She then looked at the children who were quiet, waiting for her to talk.

"Kids, you don't have to be afraid anymore. Me and the others aren't like the adults at Kiri. We won't make you do things that you don't like to do or punish you at a whim," Mai started and the kids looked a little bit hopeful.

"Now the thing is...as much that I wanted to take care of all of you...I can't. This is because me and the others are going to start an army to fight and retake Kirigakure," Mai said and the children had mixed reactions.

Some looked scared while some looked angry.

"Now you have a choice, either you can follow us and become part of the Rebellion army in liberating your home or you can go free and do whatever you want too," Mai said.

"And you must know that should you choose to follow us, you will have to fight and kill. But if you choose the other choice, then I cannot guarantee what will happen as it is your fate to make," Mai added.

The children all looked at each other before one of them spoke, "Screw Kiri! It's not my home!"

This gave the children the courage to speak what was in their minds. "I don't want to go back there!"

"I hate that place!"

"I...I don't want to fight," Haku said weakly and Mai looked at her sadly. "I don't want to use my powers...I hate it,"

"Yeah! I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my Bloodline!" another child said and this caused the other kids to voice their protests too.

Mai looked down sadly, she knew this would've happen and she truthfully, she didn't want to make them stay either.

"What's wrong guys?" Naruto said behind her as he entered the ship with Mei.

"They want to make us join them to fight and return to Kiri!" a boy said.

"Well, not now," Naruto said nonchalantly and shrugged. "But I'm with them," this caused the children to gasp at him.

"Why? Is-is it because...you like to fight?" Chojuro asked rather timidly. Naruto might not know it but the children have a rather high opinion of him, considering that he was with Zabuza before meeting them and was involved in their defense. That and he was currently the strongest of the children.

"I don't like it, but in my case, I must fight," Naruto began. "You don't want fight, but it is...next to impossible. One day you could be attacked by bandits, slavers, or even ninjas and you will be forced to fight. It doesn't matter who you are; whether you're a ninja or civilian,"

The kids started to look antsy now. Naruto scratched his head and sighed. It wasn't a good way to start things. Mei and Mai was surprised by Naruto's initiative but they felt that it was for the best to let Naruto have his way for the moment. The children might listen to them.

"I was originally from Konoha..." and this caused the children to gasp again. Of all the places that the children wished they could go, it would be Konoha or Kumo. They've heard stories about both places, especially Konoha. About how they valued friendship and family above others and there's no such as thing slavery there.

"The people there hated me...because of my powers (referring to the Kyuubi and his lightning power)," Naruto didn't want to tell them about the Kyuubi yet. He wasn't sure if all of them even knew about the Tailed Beasts and even if they knew but choose not to stay, then they could use that information against him.

The children looked down at this. If Naruto was treated badly, what about them?

"At first, yes I do hate my powers and wished that I didn't have it in the first place and I even blamed my parents too," Naruto continued. "But then, what would it do? Nothing. My powers won't go away nor will it bring back my dead parents. I realised that I can't change what happened to me,"

"So what, you just accept it?" a girl said and Naruto nodded.

"I accept it and I changed my perspective. I used to hate my powers, but now I like it. If it weren't for it, I will still be at Konoha and wouldn't meet you guys," Naruto said.

"How could you like your powers? It brings pain!" Haku said with tears in her eyes.

Mai and Mei looked at each other sadly. It was this reasoning that Kirigakure decided that they would be better off without the Bloodlines.

"Yes it does, but it can also protect. Nothing is perfect in this world; anything can be used for any purpose," Naruto explained. "Much like how a kitchen knife is used to cut veggies and meat but can also kill people," at this statement, the children looked at each other and some even gazed at their hands.

"I wouldn't be here with you guys if it wasn't for my powers!" Naruto stated. "We determine what purpose our powers. It is either you control it or it controls you,"

"But...but..." Haku said with doubt. She really didn't want to use her powers again after seeing what it did to her family and that guy that Zabuza cleaved in half.

"Look, the thing is, we can't change the past no matter how much we wanted to. That is the absolute but we can change the future and the powers we all have can help us. Back in Konoha, no matter what I do or how hard I tried, I couldn't change their opinion of me. But outside of Konoha, I can change something! Like Kirigakure for instance!" Naruto said rather happily.

"How can you be certain of that? I'm...I'm scared!" a child said.

"You think I'm not scared? I could have just walked away from this. Mei-chan offered me the same choice like you guys," Naruto explained. "You think that Mei-chan and Mai-san isn't afraid? They're going against a whole ninja village!" the children then timidly eyed the adults which returned it with a sad smile.

"Mei-chan and the others have powers like you guys. And they want to use it to turn Kirigakure, their home to a better place. They want to do this so that no other people especially kids like us to suffer the same fate that we had," Naruto said. "They could have just walked away. And yes, you guys get to choose what you want to do from now on, but what about the other kids at Kiri? Your friends left that were left behind? They didn't have that luxury,"

The children looked guilty at this. There are still a lot of their friends left back at the Floating Hope orphanage, and with their owner's demise, it could be worse for them.

"Come on guys, I want to help Mei-chan and the others but I can't do it alone," Naruto said but the children remained silent.

It was a full minute before a hand rose. "I'll...I'll...stay," Chojuro said. At seeing this, a lot more children raised their hands until the last one, Haku, joined them.

"It's scary but, but I'll join," Haku said and the adults smiled. They were rather surprised actually, as they didn't thought that Naruto could rally the children in such manner and more importantly, by Naruto's maturity.

Sure, he might act like a fool at times, well actually at most of of the time, but it shows that when it was required, he can be serious and mature. He just needed to think about his actions more carefully next time.

Mai never thought that it would be Naruto that would bring the children together. In truth, she, Takeshi and Zabuza somewhat argued on who gets to talk to the children. Takeshi was afraid that he might scare the children while Mai was afraid that she will be too soft while Zabuza said there shouldn't be any choice at all.

While it is easier to force the children, it would not be healthy for everyone in the long run. They wanted the children to understand and be loyal to the cause and not to follow them because of fear. If they had, who knows what they might do later on when they are old enough. They might betray them, or join the other villages because they were offered more.

"I'm surprised, Naruto-kun. I didn't expect such speech from you," Mai said and Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well...dad helped me a lot in that area," Naruto said and both Terumi girls raised an eyebrow at him but later smiled.

Naruto also smiled at the memory of when Takeshi thought him the life changing lesson.

_Flashback_

The Terumis all have a different training regimen for Naruto. Mei for example, taught him about chakra control, Mai taught him about taijutsu and Takeshi taught him about the ninja world. It was mainly on how it works and its history.

"Controlling my powers is hard," Naruto complained and Takeshi sighed.

"Of course it is. Power without control is just chaos and destruction," Takeshi said. "And the sad thing is, both doesn't always come together, like your case,"

Naruto grumbled and put his head on the study table. Takeshi then took a huge pile of books and placed it on Naruto's head and he struggled under the weight.

"Okay, okay, I'll get up!" Naruto said and Takeshi put the book away. Naruto then sighed and straightened himself up again.

"Now, you should now, a ninja is different from samurais in that they are willing to do and use anything to accomplish their goals. Anything and anyone is their tool," Takeshi started.

Naruto cringed at that statement. "Sounds...dishonourable and evil," Naruto said.

"Yeah, a bit. That's why we ninjas and samurais don't mix well. But here's the thing Naruto, never ever do what I said about ninjas," Takeshi said in a serious tone and stared Naruto in the eyes.

"You mean, do and use anything and anyone?" Naruto said and Takeshi nodded.

"The thing is, no matter how good your intentions are, but if you do it wrong, then is still wrong. The road to hell is paved with good intentions after all," Takeshi stated. "It is like robbing someone because you wanted to feed your family but who knows, maybe the person robbed also has his own family to feed,"

Naruto nodded while rubbing his chin in a sagely manner. "But doesn't that mean that ninjas are bad?"

Takeshi sighed a bit. "Not really," Naruto looked confused at this. "Look," Takeshi pulled out a kunai. "A kunai is used to cut and hurt people right?" Naruto nodded. "But it also can be used for harmless purpose like cutting fruits and stuff,"

Naruto 'ah'ed at this. "Now imagine that the kunai is a ninja," Takeshi said. "Now a kunai is a tool and in a way, you could also consider ninja as tools for their master. But what determines their purpose?"

Naruto pondered for a moment. "The user?"

Takeshi smiled and nodded. "Remember this; a tool's purpose is determined by its user and it is only as efficient as its user. It doesn't matter if you have the strongest sword in the world, but if you don't know how to use it, then it is weak. And a tool exists to help and but not replace its user,"

"So...are you saying that we can't be anything more than a tool?" Naruto asked and Takeshi shook his head.

"No, we ninjas are our own tool and master. We alone decide what kind of tool we will be. Are you a ninja that will blindly follow your leader's orders even though it is horrible? Or are you different?"

Naruto nodded at this. "Good, now remember that until you die," Takeshi ordered and Naruto nodded again.

"So I guess my power is a tool too?" Naruto asked and Takeshi nodded.

"That's right; you decide what your powers will do. Now, speaking about powers, there's something that you should know,"

"What is it?" Naruto asked and was rather excited when it comes about his powers.

"Just because you can, it doesn't mean that you should," Takeshi stated sagely and Naruto's mouth was hanging open.

"Huh?" was Naruto's brilliant answer and Takeshi sighed.

"It means that just because you can do something, it doesn't mean that you have to, like killing someone. By now, you can easily kill almost anyone. But does that mean that you should?" Takeshi explained and asked. Naruto shook his head furiously.

"Good. But...because you can, you should," Takeshi said.

"Hah? Now that's contradictory!" Naruto said.

Takeshi laughed a little before saying, "it means that if you can do something that is right, then you should, like helping people for example," Takeshi explained and Naruto 'ooh'ed in reply.

"Now, darkness is just the absence of light and that also applies to evil. It is merely the absence of good. As such, for the evil person to truly win is when the good person does absolutely nothing. If you saw someone committing evil and you do nothing about it, then you are that guy's accomplice, understood?" Takeshi explained and Naruto nodded furiously.

"You know, I think after your lecture, I might become a superhero," Naruto said with a grin.

"Yeah, and all you need is a cape, a mask and outside underwear," Takeshi replied and Naruto looked horrified at the prospect of wearing underwear outside.

"Is the underwear necessary?" Naruto asked.

"Or you could just wear ONLY the cape, mask and underwear," Takeshi said with a smile as Naruto's look even more horrified.

Naruto then dropped his head on the study table again before speaking, "Okay, bad idea,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Dinner for the newly reformed and unofficial Rebellion was rather...hectic a bit. The adults cooked and brought dinner to the ship so that all of them could enjoy it together. It was rather hard making dinner for large number of stomachs but they managed it in the end, thanks to the money Zabuza acquired.

The dinner was finished and the male children unfortunately have to sleep in the ship again because there wasn't enough space for them in the house. Takeshi and the adult males also have to sleep in the ship to guard it.

Naruto however, has the fortunate luck of sleeping in the house...in separate rooms of course.

Now, Mei has just finished cleaning up the dishes and was about to go back to the house when he spotted Zabuza on the deck. They both hadn't much chance to speak after not seeing each other for so long and now was a good time.

"I heard you fought the new swordsman, Masanori?" Mei asked and Zabuza nodded. He was watching the sea while Mei was standing behind him.

"Cleaved him in half from the waist," Zabuza said like it was a normal thing. Well, normal for him.

Mei closed her eyes and released a breath of relief that she was holding. "It was good enough I suppose...if it were up to me, I would melt him,"

"Of course you would. Mangetsu was your lover after all," Zabuza said but Mei could not help to notice a hint of jealousy in his tone.

Mei smiled at the memory. She and Mangetsu hit if off after her disastrous date with Zabuza and Mei find that Mangetsu was much more enjoyable than the Demon of Kiri. Their relationship wasn't very serious at the time and sadly, it couldn't go any further as Mangetsu was killed.

"He was. Did you recover his sword?" Mei changed the subject as she didn't want to open any old wounds. Not now.

Zabuza didn't answer for a moment. Maybe he wanted to talk more about their relationship but he realised that Mei can be more stubborn than he is. "I did, and I'm thinking of training one of the kids,"

"That's good then," Mei said and they both became quiet, not knowing what to say any further. "I'll see you tomorrow then,"

Zabuza didn't answer and Mei walked away with a sigh.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**A few nights later in a bar somewhere**

"Here's to us for havin' a fucked up life, weeee!" a voice in a private booth said rather loudly, not that anyone outside could hear anything about it anyway as a silencing seal was erected to prevent any sound from escaping.

"Yah! Fuck us!" another voice said. He looked to be in his mid twenties with black ponytail hair and black eyes. He also has three claw scars on his right cheek. And from the way he looked, he was drunk. "Hi-Hitoshi! *hick* more sake!"

The man named Hitoshi shook his head and poured his friend more sake. "Why am I making you even more drunk, Minoru?" Hitoshi said. He looked younger than Minoru, has silver eyes and a rather well kempt gray hair.

"'Cause you don't want to get drunk!" their third member said and he was the one who cursed before. He has very messy hair that looked like he never comb it before and also brown eyes with rectangle glasses. From the look of it, he's the youngest of the trio.

"In case you forget, Yasuo, I'm sober as to protect your drunken asses from getting robbed or killed!" Hitoshi replied angrily. His patience was really running low from the recent news and the fact that he couldn't get drunk.

"Pfft! *hick* Don't care about that! *hick* you should just...drink!" Minoru said and he shot his sake cup at Hitoshi. He originally wanted to feed him his sake but his aim was too far and he spilled his sake at Hitoshi's face.

Yasuo, upon seeing this, burst into laughter hysterically and toppled over. Minoru, however...

"See? *hick* your drinkin already! *hick* Have sommore!" Minoru said and poured more sake into his cup and repeated the same process as before.

Hitoshi was fuming and you could see his face getting redder by the second and it seemed that the sake on his face was turning into steam too. "I'M SO TEMPTED TO KILL YOU GUYS! WE SHOULDN'T EVEN BE DRINKING BECAUSE WE'RE ON FUCKING DUTY!"

Suddenly, the paper door of their booth slid open to reveal a beautiful woman and she sat in front of him. She wore an emerald kimono with golden floral print on it, she has black hair that was styled into a bun with senbons holding it in place and she has blue orbs for eyes too. She was also carrying a tray with more sake bottles.

Hitoshi quickly calmed himself before speaking to the hostess again. "I'm sorry if I was too loud and disturbed the peace, Akemi-san," Hitoshi bowed to her and Akemi giggled before waving her hand in front of him.

"Oh, it wasn't that," Akemi said. In fact, the silencing seal worked perfectly and it was very quiet outside the booth. "I'm just here to tell you to get drunk again,"

"..." was Hitoshi's reply and he stared at the beautiful hostess. "Last time I did that I ended up in your room...naked,"

Akemi then pulled out a small paper fan from her sleeve, unfold it and covered bottom half of her face and avoided eye contact. "I can't help it as you confessed to me and...and" Akemi said with a blush.

'Yeah right, more like you took advantage of me!' Hitoshi thought. "I'm sure I didn't do that,"

"Ah!" Akemi closed her fan with a snap and pointed at him. "How would you know? You were drunk! And are you accusing me of slander?"

'I wish I could,' Hitoshi thought again.

"You did what? *hick* How dare you do that to *hick* our beautiful..." Minoru said but was cut off by Yasuo.

"Sexy!" Yasuo, who was still lying on his back, raised his sake cup to the air to make his point known. Akemi giggled at this.

"...kind..."

"Generous!"

"...smart..."

"Devious!"

"...and widowed..."

"COUGAR!" Yasuo said loudly before falling asleep with a snore.

"AKEMI-CHAN!" Minoru finally finished and Akemi giggled again.

"Now, now Minoru, you have one more bottle to finish," Akemi said and handed him a sake bottle from her tray.

"Thanks! *hick*!" Minoru said and instantly drank the sake straight from the bottle. As soon as he finished drinking, he toppled over and passed out. Hitoshi sighed at this but also at the same time, felt goose bumps creeping on his skin.

"Well, it seems that we're the only ones left," Akemi said and with a devilish smile, closed the sliding door behind her.

"It...it seems so," Hitoshi gulped.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Uzushiogakure**

"That was easy..." Naruto said as he looked around the ruins of his clan's home.

"Too easy," Mei replied.

"Well, I guess we'll wait a day here to see if there really is no guards stationed here," Takeshi said and the others nodded.

"And I guess I'll just check around!" Naruto said and dragged Mei away.

Takeshi blinked a few times before shouting at the pair, "Mei wait! I didn't give Naruto any condoms yet!"

Takeshi grinned as he swiftly dodged a lava missile.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**The next afternoon, outside the bar**

"Ouh, need...aspirin...to glue my head back!" Yasuo whined while crawling on the dirt.

"Pussy! The pain is telling you that you're alive! It is the price you pay for the comfort of alcohol! No pain, no gain!" Minoru shouted.

"Fuck! Don't shout! And I've paid enough for the alcohol, thank you very much," Yasuo said as he struggled to get to his feet.

"You guys had your fun? Because we need to go back to Uzu to resume our guard duty!" Hitoshi, who was leaning on a tree said. He then pushed himself off it and started to limp away.

"It seems that you had your fun too," Minoru said. "Fought a cougar, eh?"

"..."

"A starving cougar," Hitoshi replied, but unseen to them, he had an uncharacteristic grin on his face. Not that his friends needed to see it to know it though.

"I want a starving tigress," Yasuo said and he fell on his butt. "Screw this, I'm crawling,"

"Come on guys, we need to get back to Uzu ASAP! We can't fail Kushina and Minato again this time!" Minoru shouted again and Yasuo managed to crawl to his left leg and latched to it.

"Ok, go," Yasuo simply said and Minoru walked forward like nothing happened, dragging Yasuo with him. "Narutoooo! We're coming!"

"He's not there," Hitoshi said.

"He might be! He can be anywhere right now!" Yasuo whined again and Hitoshi shook his head.

"Of all the brain damaged idiots in the world, I got stuck with these two?" Hitoshi said and continued limping. He then sighed as he thought of his current predicament.

Guarding a dead place isn't easy as it sounds. You have to chase away grave robbers, you get to meet ghosts and the occasional boredom.

But the worst and hardest part?

Trying not to murder your crazy idiot friends.

* * *

**Author's Note Again:**New characters were introduced and how they knew Naruto? What are their relationship with him? Next chapter will have action, that I promise! Oh and a plot twist too.

And have you guys read Naruto chapter 559 and 560? Those two chapters were...wow. 559 were MINDBLOWING due the fact that...Tobi, isn't who he claims to be. Now, 560, on the other hand, however...

I'm sorry but this rant will be a bit long but bear with me for a while. Those that didn't want to read, you don't have to.

**SPOILER! AVOID IF YOU HAVEN'T READ NARUTO 559 & 560 OR IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ LONG RANTS**

I'm sure a lot of you readers felt cheated and angry with the new revelation that the Sharingan can evolve to the RINNEGAN? I mean, come on, the Sharingan was already overpowered as it is, and now it can become the ultimate dojutsu? It was already THE ultimate dojutsu before Rinnegan claimed the throne. And the Byakugan...seemed useless in comparison. Even Ranmaru's dojutsu is much better.

Now the story feels like it wasn't about Naruto anymore but rather UCHIHA. Kishimoto should have changed the title to that. I mean, think about it, the whole story's conflict revolves not around Naruto but the Uchihas.

Naruto would not have the Kyuubi sealed into him if it weren't for the Uchihas and Naruto having the Kyuubi inside him is what started everything.

No matter what Naruto does, or no matter how hard he tried, the Uchihas keeps ass pulling and undermining his effort. And Naruto seemed to have reach his limit too. And I thought that it was stupid of Pain for not giving his eye to Naruto or at least destroy it! And now what happens?

But I understand that it couldn't happen as it would be...inappropriate for children that is watching the series and Kishimoto wanted to show Naruto's hardwork vs the Uchiha's talent. Naruto having the Rinnegan would beat the purpose.

Anyway, the thing is...after cooling down and thinking about it for days, I've thought of something horrifying...that it was plausible, canon-wise for the Sharingan to evolve to Rinnegan. How?

The Uchiha ancestor inherited the Sage's eyes, which is the Rinnegan. A lot of people thought that the Rinnegan and Sharingan were different because of its look and functions but they still came from the same root. Sharingan could be different because the Uchiha ancestor might have coupled with someone that has a Bloodline that changed his descendant's Rinnegan. That or the Uchiha ancestor's dojutsu was different from the start. For all we knew, the Sharingan is the downgraded version of the Rinnegan and it can only become the Rinnegan after extensive...purifications or sorts.

Also remember that the Uchiha tablet under the Naka Shrine that can only be read with specific dojutsu; namely the Sharingan, Mangekyo Sharingan and finally...Rinnegan.

Also...another big theory of mine is that, the Rinnegan isn't complete yet. I assumed that there's a connection between The Sage's Rinnegan and the Juubi's eye which looked like a combination of Sharingan and Rinnegan.

Think about it, the all powerful Juubi appeared and then, a very powerful guy with eyes that looked just like the Juubi's appeared too? If it were me living at that time I would be very suspicious.

You might say that the Juubi's eye does nothing but come on, a very powerful being that even the Kyuubi is just a fragment of it? It must do something. It also has one eye...the All Seeing Eye? Sauron's Flaming Eyeball of Doom?

I'm thinking that Kishimoto is hinting that the Rinnegan could be taken higher and those that have the right ingredients could do so; namely...Madara and Tobi.

Let's just hope that I'm wrong on that part. But it will be cool if it were true though. Definitely fanfic material, ha! Oh and if you reach this far, thanks for reading. Just...don't flame me too hard for the long rant. And tell me what you think about the matter too (Not the rant, mind you, but the Sharingan Rinnegan topic).

And Review!


	7. Chapter 6: Confrontations of The Past 1

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the late update, because you know, last year's gaming season kept me busy. Played Batman: Arkham City, AC: Revelations, and finally, the most time consuming game of all, SKYRIM. Seriously, that game...5 out 10 people you talk to has some of quest to do. But still fun. Oh and, for those that played Skyrim too, I've made **a new story** for it. Check it on my profile!

Now some of you are asking **Mei's age** since I've made her younger. Currently, she's **18** years old and Naruto's mentally **6 **but his body is 12. Due to his circumstances later on, his mental age will mature very quickly...so yeah.

**Vexit: **Mikoto will appear and join the story in two more chapters I think. Sad to say that Naruto won't go after girls for a while. Not until after the Kiri Civil War I think.

Right, gonna rant a bit so if you guys don't want to read it, please skip to the story.

Now, ever since I've made Mei had been into relationships before, some of you didn't like it well, especially readers named **th4n **and **Goldrune09**. I'm not flaming/bashing mind you, I had reasons for that.

If I didn't make Mei younger, the first time she met Naruto she will be around **22-23 **years old. At that age, she will more than qualified to become Naruto's mother and the romance will be somewhat...twisted.

Besides, at that age, she would have a lot more lovers and have "got around" more, don't you think? And at this point I realized that most of you readers wanted for Mei to be a virgin and somewhat..."pure", and this applies to the other girls in Naruto's life too.

I'm sorry to say that it will somewhat...unrealistic in the Naruto world. I mean, think about it, a ninja's life expectancy tend to be short unless you're good at it and thus it can be stressful, and you don't know if you're going to live another day. At that point, you're going to need something to relieve that stress and you're going to need comfort too. In fact, had canon Naruto was targeted to adults instead of kids, I wouldn't be surprised to see most of the cast (even the Genins) to engage in sex and alcohol after their first kill/horrifying experience.

In fact, some the very adult Naruto fanfic did just that and some of the characters are just fuck buddies with no string attached! Heck, for all we knew, it could happen off screen, like canon Kakashi frequenting the brothel whenever he was late. This story is rated mature after all.

So that's why I've lowered Mei's age, so that she doesn't "screw" around a lot more than you guys can take and by the time she's with Naruto, he's like what, the 13th guy (I'm not saying she's a slut, mind you)? But unfortunately, some of Naruto's girls are not going to be virgin, though.

But it doesn't mean that Mei's not a virgin though, as I've hinted it in the previous chapter. Her date with Zabuza didn't even get to the dinner much less the bed, and with Mangetsu, after the disastrous experience with Zabuza, she'd be more careful and it didn't get far because he sort of died. Plus, Mei's a though chick with pride, she's not going to fuck around so easily. With one failed and another cut-short relationship with the added bonus of the rebellion, safe to say that Mei's not into relationships at the moment. So there you go.

To those that reached this far, thanks for reading and sorry for the long rant!

* * *

**CHAPTER 6: Confrontations of The Past 1**

**Uzushiogakure **

"Something's bothering you?" Takeshi asked Zabuza, who was eyeing the ruins suspiciously.

Getting into Uzushiogakure was easy because although the island was surrounded by whirlpools, making it hard to approach, there were times when the whirlpool will disappear for a moment, allowing safe travel. They knew that because Kirigakure was involved in the Siege of Uzushiogakure after all and such, had that information. I

"Of course something's bothering me. Everything's going too well," Zabuza answered. If there's one thing he knew about the world is that it doesn't give you what you want on a silver platter. Well, unless you're rich, then that's a different matter. "Even though Uzu might have been abandoned, do you think making a base here is wise?" Zabuza then choose a wall to lean too and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Takeshi sighed as he knew what Zabuza meant. For their rebellion to work they needed time to generate enough force to takedown Kirigakure but most importantly, until they have that valuable time, they must remain hidden or risk premature destruction from Kiri. Setting up their base here might attract unwanted local attention, especially from Konoha.

And he would be a fool to think that Konoha would just let go of Uzu after their destruction, especially when the Hokage knew that an Uzumaki heir was still around; Naruto. Even though there might not have guards guarding the place now, who to say there will be no patrols to check on the island?

But where else do they have to go? Thanks to Zabuza's latest stunt, Kirigakure was even more paranoid and there's no way they could set their base there without being detected.

"No," Takeshi simply answered. The truth was Takeshi wasn't going to set their base at all; there's just too much risk.

"So then why are we here?" Zabuza asked. "You can't expect there to be any valuables left after so long,"

"I know that, but Mei thought that we should at least give it a check," Takeshi shrugged.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes at this. "Why? Because of the Uzumaki kid? She can't expect for something to pop out just because the kid is here,"

"Who knows, maybe something will happen _just_ because the kid is around. I know it because I've seen it before," Takeshi said and checked on his fingernails. "Damn, I need to clip my nails,"

Zabuza rolled his eyes at his sensei's antics. "I thought you didn't believe in superstitious crap like a lucky charm, more so a lucky kid,"

Takeshi grinned at this as he took out his kunai and began to carefully cut his fingernails. "Oh come on, don't tell me it didn't happen to you,"

"It certainly didn't," Zabuza scoffed.

"Really? How about the fact that he teleported right to you, allowing you to not only escape Kiri, but gain the Bloodline children too," Takeshi proudly stated the facts.

"Bah! Because of that kid we were chased by Hunter nins! If I hitched another boat, the Hunter nins could have chased after the Bloodline traffickers," Zabuza countered with his 'what-ifs' fact.

Takeshi inwardly sighed and lost his smile. Zabuza had just stated that if he could escape from Kiri undetected even at the expense of the lives of the Bloodline children, he would. _"You still think people as tools, huh?" _Takeshi thought. Nevertheless, he smiled back as he stated another fact.

"Ah, but you not only, _again, _escape without serious harm, you managed to avenge Mangetsu and get back his sword. I'd say the reward is very well worth the risk, ne?"

Zabuza scoffed again but he didn't reply and looked the other way. Zabuza might not believe in superstitious crap like luck, destiny and fate, but he believed in cold hard facts.

And the facts stated that, true, he might have escaped from Kiri using some other way, but then, he wouldn't get to kill Masanori, take Hiramekarei, the Bloodline children and the boatload of cash.

And plus, Naruto wasn't so bad either with his Bloodline. If he could get involved in his training, no, better yet train the boy himself, he could have a very powerful tool.

"Well, we'll just let Mei and Naruto snoop around a bit and then we'll go back and weigh our other options," Takeshi said as he let his mind wander at the thought of Mai who was at Wave handling the Bloodline children.

**...**

**Leaf Country Coast in front of Uzushiogakure**

"Are we there yet?" Yasuo asked to his two companions.

"This is the 22nd time you've asked and finally, FINALLY I can say YES! Now shut up!" Hitoshi replied angrily.

"Alright! Fun times over! Now, it is serious work time!" Minoru said and began a series of stretching exercises while his teammates waited.

Minoru, Hitoshi and Yasuo were Konoha ninjas assigned to guard Uzushiogakure from outsiders such as tomb raiders, bandits, missing-nins and even legal non Konoha ninjas. Oh and tourists too.

The job was quite challenging the first few years after Uzu's destruction because at that time, the attention on Uzu was still hot and they, along with reinforcements have to fight off said outsiders frequently. However, after a decade or so the world finally accepted that there was nothing left of Uzu and so the number of outsiders reduced drastically. They could even count the numbers of attempted intrusion with their hand this year!

This of course resulted in reduced reinforcement assigned to Uzu. Back then there were many of them numbering in 20 to 30 people, however, the three of them were the only ones active left assigned to guard Uzu seeing as it was a waste of resources to guard a dead place that wasn't likely to get attacked or has anything of value anyway.

"Finally," Hitoshi said and rolled his eyes and allowed himself to relax for a while by taking in deep breaths of fresh ocean air.

Yasuo however, grunted. "Man, what are we doing here? Nobody is going to try to get in and even if they do, there's nothing left in Uzu anyway!" Yasuo complained. "There are better things for us to do!"

Hitoshi sighed at this. Yasuo was the youngest of them and also the most immature. He liked to complain about a lot of things. Like how boring it was to guard Uzu, or how he wasn't able to claim his lottery winning because he read outdated newspaper or how Hitoshi was 'no fun'.

But he never questioned why they have to guard Uzu.

"What could we be doing actually?" Hitoshi asked but he already knew the answer.

"Oh I don't know, searching for Naruto for example?" Yasuo answered. "I don't see the point of guarding this place anymore,"

"We do it so that the Uzumakis will have a place to return to," Hitoshi answered and sat on a rock waiting for their team leader, Minoru to give orders to return to Uzu.

"What's the point? The Uzumaki survivors went into hiding and the ones we found doesn't want anything to do with the Ninja World anymore. So that left us with the only Uzumaki heir that might want to revive his clan, but oh wait, he's missing!" Yasuo said angrily and kicked the sand beneath his feet, dispersing them over the wind.

"Jiraiya is looking for him. That's his job and this is our job," Hitoshi answered easily, angering Yasuo even more.

Hitoshi and Minoru knew what Yasuo wanted to do; search for Uzumaki Naruto who had been missing from Konoha for about three months now. The three of them were the very few people that cared for Naruto in earnest and didn't wish him harm. So when Jiraiya appeared to them and asked if they had seen Naruto, they were worried sick. Of course the three of them had wanted to search for him right on the spot, but Jiraiya stopped them, saying that it wasn't their job.

After much arguing and they almost fight against the Sannin, the three relented, figuring that Jiraiya would do a better job. However, it has been three months now and there was still no news...

"Suuure, let the guy who was supposed to take care of him in the first place, but didn't and fucked up to search for him. Sure, he won't fuck up again. Oh wait, it has already been three months! And the great spymaster Jiraiya still couldn't find him? Yeah right!" Yasuo said and kicked more sand to the air.

"You're talking about a Sannin here, and are you implying something?" Hitoshi said through gritted teeth. He also didn't like the way things were going right now but they don't have much of a choice.

"I don't care if he's Hokage himself! And yes, I'm implying that maybe, he just didn't want to find Naruto!" Yasuo said angrily.

"Ridiculous! He loved Minato like a son! He wouldn't just abandon Naruto like that," Hitoshi replied but Yasuo already had the answer for it.

"He did, for six years, remember?" Yasuo said but before Hitoshi could say anything Minoru had cut in.

"Enough! We weren't any better! Now are you done arguing? Because if you guys had noticed, there's a ship moored near Uzu," Minoru said and cracked his neck before stopping his stretching exercises to look at his subordinates.

Yasuo gave him a look saying that he wasn't finished but decided to let it drop for now while Hitoshi got to his feet.

"Good, now let's go and greet our visitors. They're quite rare these days so let's give them our best services, shall we?" Minoru said and both of his subordinates nodded before the three of them disappeared in a blur.

******...**

"Woah, so this is my clan's place?" Naruto asked as he looked around the building they were in. When they took off to explore the place, to Naruto's and Mei's disappointment, much of the building was destroyed. The building they were currently in now was one of the very few that was intact albeit it took them quite some time to find a way in.

"Yep, your clan was rather special back then," Mei said as she traced an Uzumaki symbol on a wall. "Usually, clans will ally themselves to a ninja village for protection but your clan was powerful enough to have their own nation,"

Naruto nodded proudly at this. He always wished to be a part of something if it meant acceptance. Back then at Konoha, he always wished that he was from a clan because then he would have neat privileges but more importantly, the people and family that come with it.

Now, he got his wish and he wasn't just from a clan, but a rather powerful one at that too! But, all of that doesn't matter if the clan existed almost only by its name. Where are the Uzumaki's privileges, his clan and family members?

It was unfair, really. He just knew that he was a part of something, but that something was no more. It was like knowing that you have inherited something of value but when you have it, it was broken, irreparable, and useless.

"Sadly however...their power was what that brought its destruction," Mei said sadly and looked at Naruto, whose back was facing her as he watched a door in front of him. Naruto stopped moving at hearing this. "Power is a funny thing. For those that don't understand it, they feared it, which is wise. But, once they understand it, they would want it. And if they can't have it, they would destroy it,"

Naruto didn't say anything. He knew what Mei meant as he have power, or rather powers; the Kyuubi inside him and his bloodline. It was like in Konoha; the villagers feared him because they couldn't comprehend the demonic powers of the Kyuubi and they knew that they couldn't have it for themselves and once, they tried to destroy it.

Naruto shook his head to clear out the depressing thoughts out of his mind. The clan and family that he never met were gone now, but that doesn't mean he was alone. He got Mei, her family and the Bloodline children now. The Uzumaki clan's destruction was beyond his power to change, considering that he wasn't even born yet at that time. But now, he could do something about his new family.

"What do you think this building was for?" Naruto asked, hoping to change the subject. The building they were in was a large domed roof structure with Uzumaki symbols on the walls and, judging by the spiral lines, on the roof too. The roof seemed to have weird designs on them that allowed light to shine through. The result was that there was multiple light beams inside the room. Surprisingly enough, the building was intact, if not untouched at all.

"I'm not sure," was Mei's answer. Judging from the island layout, Mei figured that this building was located near Uzu's administration building, which meant that it was an important building before the siege. However, if it was true, then why is it empty and untouched? It could be that the building was a war shelter, but the building's design says otherwise.

Could it that it was another administration building? Then where are the tables, chairs, file cabinets and such? It could be that the attackers were too desperate that they took everything, including the furniture inside the building. But that was just...

Or maybe it was a storage room, or a warehouse? But there was no sign of anything stored in here or moving signs like drag marks. The building, in summary, was too clean. It was as if the attackers lost interest in the building once they saw the inside and see no purpose in bringing it down.

The only logical conclusion that Mei could think of was that the building was a recreation building due to the designs on the roof that allowed light to pass through and create weird shapes on the floor.

While Mei was pondering about the function of the building, Naruto ran to the center of the room and observed the shapes that were created by the sunlight on the floor. It was weird because some of the shapes were numbers, alphabets, animals, objects and the like. He then noticed more carvings on the floor in random locations. Strangely enough, some of the beams hit and matched the carvings perfectly.

Naruto noticed something...or so he thought. The carving on the floor that was hit with the matching beam glowed but it was hard to make sure because of the sunbeam.

And then the beams of light started to move around as the Sun, or rather the Earth moved. "Mei, Mei! Look at this!" Naruto called and Mei turned her attention to what was Naruto pointing at.

At first the beam's movement seemed random and Naruto amused himself chasing the beams when suddenly, the beams positioned themselves in a circle at the centre of the room. Naruto and Mei raised an eyebrow at this and looked at the circle. The shape that was form was weird because it seemed that all the designs was crisscrossed and overlapped each other, forming a long circle of incomprehensible word.

And then the floor where the beam made contact glowed and seals started to appear in the centre of the beam circle.

"I-I see!" Mei said suddenly and snapped her fingers with a look of epiphany...sort of.

"What?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. He never saw her act like this before.

"The Uzumaki's are a genius!" Mei started to say. "This whole room is actually a vault!"

"I-uh, don't get it," Naruto said and Mei spun pointed at the seal.

"In order to get to what was this room is keeping, we need to access that seal. However, that seal will only appear when the beams are formed like this," Mei explained and Naruto nodded.

"Oh...wow. That's...how the heck did they arranged it to do it like that?" Naruto asked again and Mei smiled and crouched down near the seal.

"That's the genius. You see Naruto, in any other time and day, the beams will be scattered like what we saw we came in. If people come here they would think that this building is just a recreation building, a solarium even. However, only on a specific day and time will the beams form together like this," Mei stated and pointed towards the beam circle.

"And then, there's a mechanism under the floor which I believe involved seals that will activate once the beam hits it," Mei continued.

"Woah," Naruto said when something hit it. "Man! Isn't it strange that we arrived at right day?"

Mei nodded. The beam then scrambled back to random positions but the seal didn't disappear. Mei and Naruto let out a breath of relief at this. "It seems that this whole building was a vault with a time lock, designed to only open when the right time has passed. It was genius really, because Uzu's invaders would remain for a while to uncover whatever secrets remain,"

Luckily, Konoha managed to reclaim Uzu from the enemy ninjas after its destruction and the building was unharmed. If not, whatever secret this room was hiding would have fallen to enemy hands or worst, lost forever.

"So, uh, what now?" Naruto asked and scratched his head. The seal was unresponsive, as if it was waiting for something. "Do we need to wait again to see if it opens?"

Mei remained silent for a while as she pondered what to do next. And then, the answer hit her! "It seems that the Uzumaki clan was a paranoid bunch too. But I can't blame them. Ninjas are paranoid too after all," Mei said and Naruto sighed.

"We need to do something else, don't we?" Naruto said and Mei nodded with a smile.

"You see, this vault, comes with two security mechanisms that uses different keys to unlock them," Mei started her explanation. "The first mechanism uses sunlight and the key was time. It then reveals the second security mechanism; the seal,"

"So...the second key is...?" Naruto asked and Mei just looked at him with a smile. Naruto raised an eyebrow at this; how many times had he done that today? "Me? Wha? How? I wasn't even here to-to lock this vault!"

"No Naruto," Mei shook her head to calm Naruto down. "It is not you, rather, your blood. The Uzumaki blood,"

"Ooohh," Naruto said and let out a breath of relief. "I thought that you would ask me to solve some puzzle or something. I'm not good at that...yet," Naruto let out a nervous chuckle and Mei giggled at this.

"Well, we'll have to work on that, don't we?" Mei said and Naruto nodded with a smile.

"So let's do this!" Naruto exclaimed as he fist pumped to the air.

"Are you sure? What we are going to find out maybe...personal," Mei asked and draw out her kunai.

"Yeah, well...it's not like another Uzumaki is going to come here to open the vault, right? So I guess, it's mine now?" Naruto scratched his head, shrugged and hand his hand to Mei. "Besides, it was one of the reasons why we're here,"

"True, well then, let's see what's on the other side, shall we?" Mei said and made a small cut on Naruto's palm. Naruto didn't even flinched or show any sign of pain at all, show that he was used to it. She then took the tip of the kunai that has a drop of Naruto's blood and flicked it at the seal.

The seal didn't react at all.

"Eh? Did we do something wrong?" Naruto asked and Mei pondered for a while. They had expected for a door to open on a floor nearby that leads to the inside of the vault but nothing happened!

"I think...you have to touch it," Mei stated and Naruto looked at her for a moment before shrugging.

"Okay," Naruto said put his bloodied palm at the seal. Suddenly, the seal moved on its own as if it was alive and crawled unto Naruto's hand! "Wha-what the? What's going on? I can't pull my hand off the seal!"

"Naruto, calm down!" Mei said and before she could touch him, the seal had spread onto his whole body. Mei's hand then managed to touch Naruto's shoulder but it was too late as Naruto was engulfed by a white smoke and disappeared into thin air.

Mei's eyes widened at what had happened. "Naruto? Naruto!" She then applied some of Naruto's blood on her palm and touched the seal but it didn't react. "Dammit!" Mei cursed and she forced herself to calm down. It seemed that the seal summoned Naruto or Uzumaki members into the vault itself.

Another genius move as it prohibited tailgating. But now, Naruto was alone in the vault and who know what was inside there after years of closure. She just hoped that Naruto was fine and knew how to get out of there.

Mei sighed and took out a small paper and wrote a note; telling Naruto that if he managed to get out and Mei wasn't around, he was not to worry and go to their meeting point. Then, she wrapped the note around her kunai and put it on the floor near the seal.

Mei quickly got up and went outside to meet the others. She and Naruto had uncovered an Uzumaki secret that might change everything. She just hoped that it was for the best.

However, what was more important was Naruto.

"Be safe Naruto and come back," Mei said softly.

******...**

"Suspicious, definitely suspicious," Yasuo said to this teammates. They were currently hiding in one of their hidden observatory spot in Uzu, watching and analysing the two strangers. "What do you think they are? Bandits? Ninjas?"

"I didn't see any headbands on them, but they could have stored them. But the one with the overcompensating-for-something sword might be one," Minoru said and rubbed his chin. "Plus, that guy seemed familiar,"

Hitoshi then took out the updated Bingo Book they acquired and began to flip through the pages. A Bingo Book is essential for every ninja that has missions outside of their villages as it helped a lot in their survival; especially for running away. Most missing ninjas tend to use disguises and some aren't foolish (or confident) enough to openly wear their slashed headband for easy recognition. This tended to cost ninjas that didn't bother to read their Bingo Book their lives.

"Shit," Hitoshi said and this earned the attention of his teammates and one glance at Hitoshi with the Bingo Book, and they understood what's going on. One of the strangers was a missing ninja.

"Oh boy, a missing nin?" Yasuo said with excitement. They didn't get the chance to fight challenging opponents very much, mostly just weak bandits, mercenaries or drunks.

"Yes, the one with the big sword is Momochi Zabuza. Recently became Kirigakure's missing ninja by attempted assassination of the Mizukage," Hitoshi stated and at this Yasuo paled.

In the history of the Ninja World, it was very rare for a Host of the Tailed Beast to become a Kage, mostly because they were unstable for a number of reasons ranging from the society that hates them causing the Host to hate them in return, bad containment seals that burns away the Host and exposure to the Tailed Beasts themselves.

And it was even worse that the term 'stable' mostly refers to the physical and not mental condition of the Host. Priority was given to the physical containment of the Tailed Beast first and whether the seal would last and the Host is capable of harnessing said power without **much **side effect.

As a result, most Hosts of Tailed Beasts tend to be stable physically, but not mentally and it wasn't surprising for them to hate humans.

So, giving the dictatorship position to a Host was just foolish and crazy. Before Yagura, no Host has ever been made a Kage. And it seemed that the decision of making Yagura the Mizukage was a mistake after all.

The Ninja World questioned this decision and it was even more baffled as Yagura began purging Kirigakure of its Bloodlines. The Bloodlines are just like the Hosts; no matter how much you hate them, it didn't change the fact you need them in this blood fuelled world. You rather have them than without.

"He fought against Yagura and lived?" Yasuo asked and Minoru shook his head.

"No, they didn't fought one on one if that's what you're thinking. He tried to assassinate Yagura, failed and ran away," Hitoshi answered and Yasuo let out a sigh of relief. Every ninja can assassinate and it was easier than fighting head on too as you have the first strike and if it succeeds, there will be no need for a second strike.

Fighting head on was harder because you will have to face against an opponent that will give their hundred percent to the fight. And a Host's fifty percent was usually enough to kill normal ninjas.

So essentially, anyone that survived a fight against a Host deserved a medal or something.

Yasuo then scoffed and waved his hand, "Bah, I thought that we're going against someone thought but just a regular assassin that managed to ran away, big deal,"

With this, Minoru bumped his head with enough force to send Yasuo's face to kiss the ground. Luckily, this was a regular occurrence when Yasuo was around Minoru and thus Yasuo was able to train himself not to scream in pain.

"Idiot! Underestimating someone is the sure way to get you killed! Besides, he wasn't finished," Minoru said and Hitoshi nodded.

"Correct, he's not just a regular assassin mind you. He's one of the Seven Swordsman of Kiri and they are Kirigakure's best fighters, not to mention that Zabuza also comes from the strongest generation of Swordsman Kiri has ever produced yet," Hitoshi continued as Yasuo got back to his feet and he didn't even looked to be in pain at all.

He did look horrified though.

"While the other swordsman specialises in direct combat with their style centered on their special swords, Zabuza is one of the two that specialises in combat assassination," Hitoshi continued his explanation and Yasuo continued to look even more horrified.

Combat assassination; just like regular assassination but different. In assassination, you don't know you were going to be assassinated. But in combat assassination, you faced the assassin directly and know that he could assassinate you at anytime. It was a difficult feat considering that your target can try to stop you.

"Oh and one final bit about Zabuza; he killed one hundred children before he was even a Genin," Hitoshi finished and stored away the Bingo Book with a grin, liking the horrified effect on Yasuo right now. "Heck, even Hosts have problem reaching that number early in their life,"

Minoru crossed his arms, closed his eyes and nodded enthusiastically while Yasuo opened and closed his mouth like a fish, not knowing what to say.

"Umm...can I fight the other guy while you guys take down Zabuza?" Yasuo offered and Hitoshi grinned even wider now.

"We don't know about the other guy and like Minoru said, underestimating your opponent can get you killed. Since you are the weakest, you're going to help Minoru instead while I fight the other guy," Hitoshi said and Minoru nodded.

"Sound strategy, I like," Minoru said simply and Yasuo looked even more horrified now.

"Captain, you agree?" Yasuo said and Minoru nodded again.

"He's the one with the brain, I'm the one with the authority and you're the one with the...support?" Minoru said Yasuo slumped.

"Fine..." Yasuo said as he accepted his fate. The three of them then were ready to move when another stranger joined the two. "Woah! A redhead! And she's hot too!"

"It's a fact that every redhead is hot! If you're a redhead, then you're hot, that's it!" Minoru stated with fervour and his two subordinates crossed their arms, closed their eyes and nodded in acceptance with an "Hm,"

"Like Kushina?" Hitoshi said.

"Especially Kushina!" Minoru replied with even more fervour and the two nodded in the same manner again.

"She looks like Kushina though," Yasuo said and this caused the trio to look at each other for a moment.

"Do you think that...she's an Uzumaki?" Yasuo asked with concern.

"Not sure...if she is, then why is she with Zabuza?" Hitoshi replied as he tapped his chin. "Could be that she didn't know who Zabuza really is...or Zabuza took them hostage...assuming that she really is an Uzumaki,"

"You know what; let's just ask them, shall we?" Minoru said and his subordinates nodded before the trio disappeared in a Shunshin.

******...**

"Okay...where am I now?" Naruto asked to no one in particular as he spun around to have a look at where he was. It seems that he was on an island, but it wasn't an ordinary island mind you because islands tended to be surrounded by oceans made of water.

This island was surrounded by ocean of clouds. Or maybe, he's on island on a cloud. There was also a sun in the distance but strangely, it wasn't eye hurting bright. Needless to say, the island he was on was very beautiful.

Naruto then noticed a house...okay it was more of a mansion in a distance and a small farm; however, he didn't see anyone yet.

"Have I teleported somewhere else again?" Naruto said as he scratched his head. He never heard of an island up in the sky before but well, just another strange thing to add in his list of 'Weird things encountered'.

At least he could say that it wasn't his fault. Mei totally had a part in it and if she decided to scold him, he could use this as leverage

Naruto then quickly ran towards the edge of the island and in curiosity, tried to touch the cloud, but to his disappointment, his hand hit an invisible wall.

"What the?" Naruto said and smack the offending invisible wall that was in his way to the soft cloud. He wanted to taste them, dammit! He wanted to know if the myth that clouds tasted like cotton candy was true.

But alas, the wall was still there and Naruto sighed, accepting the fact it was probably there to prevent people from falling off the island.

"This place is awesome!" Naruto said and decided to explore more of the paradise-like island. He then head towards the mansion slowly, not wanting to attract the owner. He might have teleported to a safe haven for the Uzumakis but it wasn't confirmed yet so it was better for him to scout the place first.

Reaching the mansion he found out that it wasn't locked so he made his way inside and found out that it was quite luxurious...obviously as it was a mansion. But of course, Naruto never had been inside a mansion before so he was taken aback by it.

The living room had three comfortable sofas facing a wide flat screen television set connected to numerous electronic devices which upon further inspection revealed them to be media box and videogame consoles! Naruto gasped at this. In the Ninja World, flat screen TVs are damn expensive and the same goes to the consoles and media box!

This is because the flat screen TVs, media box and consoles are rather found than made. Actually, all of the very good electronic devices were found, sometimes in buried rooms or in the ground, mostly buried inside another thing such as time capsules. And it didn't help that most of it was found broken and finding a working equipment was very rare indeed.

The entire tech clearly showed that there was an ancient civilization more advanced that the current Ninja world existed before this, heck some even said that it was even before the age of the Rokudo Sennin! No one knew what happened to them but all of them can agree that the Tailed Beasts had something to do with it.

Sadly however, not much attention was given to the higher end of technology, just the lower tech like short range radio, fat, bulky cathode ray tube TVs and the like.

Well, you can't really blame the people of the Ninja World, considering the numerous wars, the difficulty of understanding and making the devices and their sensitivity, especially to water. Electronical devices were so hard to make and yet so very easy to destroy.

Plus, it wasn't a necessity in a ninja's life.

Naruto was very tempted to operate the TV and its partner devices but alas, he didn't know how. Considering how sensitive it was and how much of a brute he was, he might break it. So Naruto stepped away from the living room while giving it a sad look and head to the kitchen instead.

And as he thought, it didn't disappoint. It has a rectangle counter in the middle and the top was made of marble. It has two sides, one for preparing the ingredients while the other side is for placing the food and as probably as the dining section too. There was also a wall kitchen counter in the shape of an L with integrated sink and at a corner, an electric cooking stove.

But the most eye catching thing in the kitchen was of course the chrome fridge. It was huge! The fridge he has back in his apartment in Konoha was only his size but this fridge was easily double in size. It has ice and water dispenser on the outside and it was also covered in notes.

Naruto stood closer to take a look at the notes and realised that some of it were schedules for crops and...animals.

_-Today cow B-17 has turned a year old! Happy birthday B-17! I'm going to make you a nice grass cake. Enjoy it because tomorrow...you're my meat...and Kuro's too.-_

"Oookay..." Naruto said and started to fear the owner of this mansion a bit. He then proceed to open the fridge to find...organic food and not one processed food in sight. There wasn't even a carton of milk, just milk in a glass jar. But there's yogurt too and as Naruto check the freezer he found there's ice cream too and all of it was self-made. Whoever lived here probably didn't like processed food much.

Naruto then closed the fridge even though he was very tempted to try the ice cream; nevertheless he continued his tour of the house. There was a storage room, guest room that was filled with stuffs, showing that it wasn't used as it was intended to, a dojo, gym and a backyard garden with a fish pond complete with the bamboo-thingy-that-filled-with-water-will-go-thunk!

But, what was more impressive was that there was an indoor onsen! Not to mention that the roof of the onsen can be opened to reveal the sky! There's also a sauna room and bathroom too.

Naruto then shook his head and quickly went to the upper floor lest he jumped into the onsen. The upper floor was also incredible. There was a master bedroom, guest room, which Naruto guessed wasn't a guess room anymore, another bathroom, a very large porch and a large study room. Naruto then entered the study room and found that it was quite a mess.

There was paper littered everywhere and picking it up Naruto realised that there's drawings on them. The papers on the floor were filled with crude and ugly drawings, much like how a person who never draw professionally tried to draw. Naruto then noticed that there was a journal on the table and went to read it.

_-How long was I stuck here? 10 years? Or is less or more? Ah dammit, who cares about that now. What I care right now is that after being alone for so long without human contact, I'm beginning to forget the people I cared about. Their faces, their voices, their smiles...dammit! I can't forget!_

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. Whoever that was living here had been living alone for years! Well, that was if the person is even alive. Sure the food inside the fridge seemed fresh but for all he knew there was a seal inside the fridge that preserves the food even longer.

He then decided to continue reading the journal before deciding on what to do next.

_-So...in order to remember, I'm going to draw them! Ambitious for someone who never draw but it's not like I have anything to do here. Well, actually, I have crops and the animals to take care of...not to mention training...goddamn those all are hard work! Now I know why farmers are so important in a country. Speaking of which, why aren't they rich? They should charge more for their hard work dammit! _

_Anyway, hard work or not, I still have time._

_What's that Kuro? I need to study the Uzumaki arts? Silly Kuro, I've done that I'm a master now! There's nothing about the Uzumaki arts that I didn't know! We've also watched almost everything inside that mediabox and yeah, we've played ALL the videogames too, achievements included and Kuro, you suck at videogames. But it wasn't your fault; videogames wasn't made for dogs after all._

Naruto's eyes widened at this. Whoever that was living here was probably an Uzumaki!

_-Don't whine to me about it! I don't know how to rig the controller to suit you! I'm a ninja, a farmer, a seal master, amateur medic and vet, future painter, a video gamer but I'm not an engineer! _

_What's that Kuro, you found something about electronics? Oh, it's so easy for you, isn't it? You just sit around, herd the animals, eat, sleep, shit and love me. Me? I have to read books, which I don't like, gain skills and do all the hard work!_

_...fine! I do this because I love you too! Now give me that book! _

_Well let me see, Electrical Electronics Starter Book; looked simple enough. _

_The fuck? Is this book about summoning Old Gods or something? Oh god, the mathematics required...even the sealing required to summon the Shinigami wasn't this complex...well actually it is but you get my point! This proves it; mathematics is actually the language of evil!_

_And look at this! Look at the real devices that the mathematics was supposed to be applied on! Look inside this controller! Your innards looked like a ten piece puzzle compared to this! It's a wonder how they even worked! And what am I supposed to work with? I need specific equipment which this place doesn't have any!_

_I'm sorry Kuro, but I'm afraid video game for dogs is impossible._

_Oh hey, I found accessories for the consoles! It's a motion sensing controller! It senses our body movement and uses it as control instead! Damn this is awesome. I swear that electronic devices are magic._

_And there's configuration to detect pets too...wow, the creators of this thing really thought of everything. So now you can play too.-_

Naruto chuckled at this. It seemed that living alone has made this person...a bit loose in the head.

_-Anyway, back to the drawing subject! So now I'm going to draw! But this will be hard considering that I have limited amount of papers to work with. Man, they have seals to make sure that devices inside the house don't broke easily but they don't have any that makes more papers? I wish I got Hashirama's Mokuton. _

_Fortunately, there's a book on how to draw inside the library so I won't be so bad at this. _

_Right?_

Naruto turned around to look at the scattered papers that covered the floor and picked one the papers. From the drawing, this person doesn't have much talent in drawing at all.

_-Finally! After a long struggle! I'm not just a painter, but a fucking good one too! Behold my gallery! It's inside the guest room on the first floor by the way.-_

Naruto then exited the study room and went inside the guest room that he didn't entered earlier and found the gallery. What was inside surprised Naruto because he expected to find horrible drawings but in reality, he found paintings that look lifelike, almost like a painting than a painting!

What's more, each painting was framed and there was a description near each painting. The painting also wasn't arranged systematically but rather in a random way. Some were high, while others were low. Some are closer to each other while the others were far.

Naruto then looked at the painting nearest him, it was of a redheaded woman whose hair was tied in two small buns and she also has a diamond mark on her head. She had a regal smile and soft eyes, looking at a distance. On the bottom of the painting were a signature and a name.

_-Uzumaki Mito-_

Naruto perked up at this; an Uzumaki! He then read the description of the painting.

_-Uzumaki Mito was the daughter of Uzumaki clan's 9th chieftain. She was, as expected of her station, master of the Uzumaki arts and a powerful woman even without it. This wasn't a surprise, considering the state of the world at that time where wars and destruction was abundant._

_She was a prominent figure in the history of the Ninja World due to her actions that allowed for the formation of the Ninja World to be possible. While it was true that Hashirama was the one that thought of the idea of the Ninja World, it was Mito that made it a reality._

_Hashirama Senju, leader of the Senju clan, humbly came to the Uzumaki clan and proposed for a place of unified clans. He realised that most of the clans were fighting against each other and so, if they were united, they will not fight against each other and the fighting will stop. After all, you destroy your enemies by being friends with them._

_The Uzumaki agreed and so does the other clans that would make up Konoha today. However, there were two obstacles that stood in their way; the Tailed Beasts and Uchiha Madara. _

_The Tailed Beasts were a dangerous and unstable factor, capable of massive destruction and very hard to tame. If they didn't do anything about it, the Beasts would one day attack their village, destroying their hard work. And so, the Uzumaki clan were tasked with the seal to contain the beasts including the monstrous Kyuubi._

_Uchiha Madara was the leader of the Uchiha clan; the Senju's rival. However, at that time, even the battle hungry Uchiha grew tired of the constant fighting and death and they agreed of the to join the Senju. Madara agreed reluctantly but insisted that he should become the leader of the unified clan instead. Many refused him including his own clan. Madara then sought out to take the title by force instead._

_Without an army, he could not fight against the unified clans alone. However, a Tailed Beast was usually worth an army, if not more, especially the Kyuubi. Madara, with the power of the Sharingan, managed to bring the Kyuubi under his control and threatened to destroy the unified clan. Hashirama Senju then proceeded to face and fight Uchiha Madara at the Valley of the End._

_History will tell you that Hashirama Senju fought against Uchiha Madara and the Kyuubi alone but it was untrue. Hashirama Senju was accompanied by Uzumaki Mito._

_Hashirama fight off against Madara while Mito worked on how to defeat the Kyuubi. After a long a undoubtedly, an epic battle, Uchiha Madara was defeated and the Kyuubi, for the first time, was sealed into Uzumaki Mito._

_Without Mito by his side, Hashirama would undoubtedly lose, and even if he won, the Kyuubi would go a rampage that would definitely destroy Konoha. While it was true that Hashirama Senju's Mokuton power was able to subdue Tailed Beasts, but the question was, for how long? And what would happen if Hashirama was not available? What then?_

_Uzumaki Mito provided the answer to those questions. _

_Uzumaki Mito became the first Host for the Kyuubi no Yoko. However, she was not only that, as she also became the wife of the First Hokage.- _

Naruto's eyes widened at this. A Host! Someone like him! And what's more, she was of the same clan! Now Naruto felt closer the Uzumaki then ever. They must know his burden, his pain of becoming the host, right?

But then reality hit him, Uzumaki Mito was the wife of the first Hokage who lived a long time ago. There was a chance that she might not even be alive. Naruto sighed at this and proceeded to other painting.

It was another redheaded woman and if Naruto had to guess, another Uzumaki. This woman however was the very opposite of the Mito. She has long hair with a hairclip on her left forehead, green eyes and a rather boyish smile. One could surmise that she's a bit of a tomboy. Naruto then focused his attention on the description.

_-Uzumaki Kushina was the daughter the 11th chieftain of the Uzumaki clan. She was born with a twin brother, Uzumaki Isamu. _

_The twins were pretty much alike and had almost the same personality; brash, reckless, quick to temper, almost too courageous for their own good but nevertheless loyal to their precious person. _

_However, there was one thing that separated the two of them, aside for the gender that is; Kushina was easier to teach and learn compared to his brother. _

_As part of the Uzumaki-Konoha Alliance program, Kushina along with a few other children (her twin wasn't included) was sent to Konoha at a very young age to learn how to become a ninja there and learn more about Konoha. _

_However, because of her look at that time that resembled a tomato, she was bullied early on and was even called Tomato. However, she did not take this easily and proceeded to lash out at whoever that teased her. Since she was a capable fighter, no one dared to call her Tomato again but rather with a new nickname; Red Hot-Blooded Habanero; a chilli pepper. _

_It was during the academy days that she met with Namikaze Minato, the future Fourth Hokage and her husband. It wasn't a love at first sight as Kushina didn't like Minato at first, as she considered him to be 'girly'. However, due to certain events, the two grew closer to each other and fell in love._

_The two then would become one of the most powerful couple in the history of the Ninja World, one that rivalled the Hashirama Senju and Uzumaki Mito themselves. Minato was a natural genius who learned things rather quickly but Kushina was also a genius in her own right, her hard work. _

_Kushina was an exceptional Uzumaki; she wasn't a natural born genius but make it up with her stubborn attitude to learn things. After all, to her, education was just like fighting and Kushina hated losing fights. It was because of this that she was stronger than her rather lazy brother who would rather learn flashy ninjutsu and kenjutsu than the formidable Uzumaki arts._

_Later on however, Uzumaki Mito was nearing her end and the Kyuubi that was sealed inside her must be passed on. If not, the Beast will roam free and wreak havoc to the world. The second Host for the Kyuubi was Uzumaki Kushina._

_Although with heavy heart, she accepted the task with pride and courage._

_Just like much of Hashirama's achievement was because of Mito, so was Minato's. It was Kushina that provided the means for Minato to create two of his famous signature moves; Rasengan and Hiraishin. _

_It was Kushina that taught Minato the art of sealing and made him an Uzumaki Seal Master to create the Hiraishin. And Minato created the Rasengan by observing Kushina's Tailed Beast Ball when she transformed used the Kyuubi's chakra and become almost the Beast itself._

_Needless to say, it was because of Hiraishin that allowed Konoha to turn the table and end the Third Ninja World War and made him into one of the strongest Hokage that could rival the previous Hokages.-_

"Woah," Naruto said in amazement. These Uzumaki women were badass! Heck, it was official now, if anyone to say the word Kunoichi to him, the Kunoichi image would be these two. Plus, it made him damn proud to have such powerful women as clan members and ancestors, maybe? Could he be directly related to one of them, maybe the great grandson to Mito or maybe son to Kushina?

"Nah, that's pushing it too far," Naruto shook his head. He was grateful to be born of anyone of the Uzumaki clan, regardless of whom and what they did. It was good enough to find that he was part of one of the greatest clan on Earth, and he wouldn't wished for more...although maybe he wished that they weren't wiped out.

Besides, he didn't look like an Uzumaki anyway, not with his blonde hair. He wished he could have red hair, which would be cool. It would make him look more threatening or noticeable.

Naruto shrugged and head towards the next painting. He could dye his hair anytime anyway. He then focused his attention to the painting in the painting and this time it was a blonde guy with blue eyes.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. Strange, it was as if looking at an older version of himself, and not to mention that the guy seemed familiar too. Wonder where he had seen the guy...

"Oh yeah! He's the Fourth! I never knew he was a blonde!" Naruto said snapping his finger as he remembered seeing the Fourth's face on the Hokage Monument. The reason why he didn't knew the Fourth was a blonde because the Hokage Monument wasn't coloured and he didn't read any history books too.

But he didn't care much for the man at Konoha because...well he did sealed the Kyuubi into him after all.

_-Namikaze Minato was the Konoha's Fourth Hokage and arguably considered the strongest yet. _

_Not much was known about his parentage or if the Namikaze was even a clan. All was known about Minato was that he was an orphan. However, his orphan status was what shaped him to be a humble, kind person that made him famous during his reign as the Hokage._

_During his academy days, although gifted, he was not the person to show it or brag about it and instead was humble. He was not afraid to ask questions and sometimes, challenge the teachers themselves. And it was to no surprise for him to become the best student at that time. This in turn attracted the attention of Jiraiya the Sannin to take him as one his students._

_Jiraiya was not his only teacher, however. Uzumaki Kushina; his wife also became his teacher in the Uzumaki Sealing Arts. It wasn't long until Minato learnt everything from them and made his mark on the Ninja World._

_Using his knowledge of the Uzumaki Sealing Arts, he, with the help of his wife created one of the strongest and useful ninjutsu ever, the Hiraishin. The jutsu allowed one to travel between two points that was marked with a seal instantaneously, akin to a teleport. However, this jutsu was very hard to learn, master and pull off; a testament to Minato's skill._

_With this skill he became feared and was given a 'Flee On Sight' status to ninjas and he would continue to use it to end the Third Ninja World War.-_

Naruto whistled at this. Minato was badass! How awesome would it be to meet him in person? But of course that wasn't possible as Minato was now dead. And even if he did, he didn't know what to do...or feel. Naruto then stared at Minatos's painting, feeling a bit conflicted.

The guy did cause him a lot of pain after all. But, he married to an Uzumaki so that makes him a family. Do he forgive Minato for what he did, or don't?

Naruto shook his head and figured that it was of no use to think about it now. He'll have to meet with the owner of this place first. But before that, he'll just take a look at the other paintings.

He found a group painting this time. It was...a wedding of Minato and Kushina. Based on the painting, the couple had just finished the ritual and now official newlyweds. Kushina was smiling widely with her arm crossed with Minato's and Minato had his free hand scratching the back of his head and looked abashed. There was also a raven haired woman with a large smile and her eyes closed hugging Kushina.

To the left and right sides of the painting were various people. He saw Grandpa (Sarutobi, of course) smiling with his pipe in his mouth, a white haired guy that was wiping his non-existent tears with a tissue and a blonde busty woman beside him with a diamond mark on her forehead giving a thumbs up.

There was also a silver-haired and masked boy with his hands in his pockets. His eyes were closed but he could tell that he was smiling under the mask.

At his side was was a goggled black haired boy with a shit-eating grin throwing sakura petals all over the couple with another girl, who had cheek markings doing the same, smiling happily.

And then there was even Teuchi, the ramen chef! It seemed that Teuchi knew and probably was close to the couple. Teuchi never told him that! Then again, he never asked. Other than that, that was among the noticeable and close ones to the couple that he could tell. The rest were Konoha nins and Uzumaki members.

There was a wet spot though near the signature of the painting and Naruto read the short description.

_-The Wedding of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina._

_Minato you bastard, you better take care of her!-_

Naruto chuckled at this. But then he realised something, based from the description, the painter seemed close to Kushina. Could it be?

Naruto then examined the painter's signature closely and found that it wrote a name.

Uzumaki Isamu.

So the painter was Kushina's twin brother after all. Well, he guessed that would make things easier.

There were also numerous paintings arranged near the wedding painting. One painting was reserved for bride and her bridesmaid and women and there was a painting for the men too. The women all posed beautifully and elegantly while the men...well you know men. Jiraiya was head-locking Minato and so was the silver haired teenaged doing the same with his goggled friend with an annoyed look on his face.

After that, there were paintings of the celebration and most of it was funny. There was a painting of Kushina opening a gift only to discover that it contained very sexy undergarments and a book set; from the looks of it, it was a rather sexual book. Kushina was very red and the busty blonde was head-locking the white haired guy who was trying very hard to escape, no doubt that it was from him. And it looked like the other women was mad too and the remaining men tried to edge away from the women.

Seeing the happy painting made Naruto smiled. He wondered whether he could have happy moments like the people in the painting had.

He could, if he work for it.

Naruto then shook his head and decided that he had enough of walking down someone else's memory lane. He needed to find the owner of this place and get back to Mei.

Luckily however, he didn't have to do much as he heard sounds from the ground floor, suggesting that the owner, Isamu had come home.

Naruto then took a deep breath and gulped. The owner, Isamu was an Uzumaki, right? So if he met another Uzumaki, he won't be hostile, right? Let's just hope that after years of isolation from human society doesn't made him insane.

Naruto then slowly walked downwards and sure enough a husky breed dog came running at the base of the stairs and barked at him.

'Must be Kuro', Naruto thought.

"What are you barking at, Kuro? I swear if this is your trick to scare me again into thinking that this house is haunted, you're not going to have any of B-17's meat tomo-"a man said as he approached Kuro and stopped entirely when he saw Naruto.

The man sure enough has long red hair tied in a ponytail and has green eyes and also a scar on his right cheek suggesting that his cheek was once _cut open. _Aside from that he was wearing a wife beater and black shorts and was drenched in sweat.

"Umm...hello?" Naruto started and the man gasped.

"Kuro! It's-it's-" the man, Isamu said and pointed at Naruto and Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"Yea...I'm-"

"You're Minato from an alternate future that came here through a failed Hiraishin!" Isamu exclaimed.

"That's right...wait what?" Naruto said, stupefied, unable to think anything before Isamu jumped at him.

******...**

"He what?" Takeshi asked rather heatedly.

"Disappeared to somewhere...I guess to the Uzumaki safe place," Mei answered and Takeshi paced around in circles in front of her.

"So what now?" Zabuza asked without a hint of concern in his voice.

"We wait of course. We can't just leave him," Mei said with a commanding tone to it.

"He could be there for days!" Zabuza said with anger in his voice. As valuable as Naruto was, there was a time to let things go and move on. After all, tools were expendable and replaceable.

"We have days," Takeshi said and sat down. "We don't have much to do anyway, so might as well wait,"

"Did you forget that there might be Konoha patrols?" Zabuza asked again and before he could answer, three puffs of smoke appeared in front of them.

The smoke then cleared and revealed three Konoha ninjas. "What of them?" one of them said, who appeared to be the leader, Minoru.

Takeshi quickly got up and managed to put his hand on Zabuza before he could do anything foolish.

"Do you realise that you are trespassing on unauthorized zone belonging to Konoha? Did you not see the numerous signs placed around the island?" Hitoshi said.

"That's true. Trespassers will be stabbed at without warning and stabbed again if survive. You're lucky we're not stabbing you yet," Yasuo said with a rather squeaky voice. It wasn't like every day you could threaten a monster and hopefully, live another day.

"Sorry, we're just curious tourists. I heard from my friend that it's a historical place worth visiting," Takeshi said apologetically.

"Haven't you heard that curiosity killed the cat?" Minoru said and Takeshi looked sheepish.

"Can you let us go just this one time?" Takeshi said and rubbed the back of his head.

Minoru's eyes narrowed at this. "Depends. Do you know who the bandaged guy is? Answer truthfully or we'll stab you like the warning sign says,"

Takeshi's eyes widened at this. Mei glanced at Zabuza whose muscles were preparing for a fight.

"He's our bodyguard you see," Mei quickly answered.

"You pick the wrong guy for a bodyguard. He's a criminal you see and we have to detain him, kill him or make him flee. Now since you're with him, I'm afraid we have to do the same to you. Now you have the choice of making this easy or hard. Which will you pick?" Minoru stated and pulled out his kunai and his subordinates did the same.

Takeshi sighed at this and scratched the top of his head. "Looks like we don't have much choice. Boys and girls, try not to kill them. Especially you Mei,"

Mei's eye twitched at this. Due to her Bloodlines, she was more suited to completely destroy her foes. It was Mangetsu and Zabuza's forte of capturing people alive.

Yasuo gaped at this. He thought that Takeshi would warn Zabuza to not kill anyone, and not the woman. That means that the woman was more dangerous than Zabuza! And he was assigned to fight her!

'God dammit,' Yasuo cursed.

"Sorry, we don't have such restrictions you know, so don't expect us to pull any punches," Minoru said and began flashing through his handseals, signalling the start of the fight.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **Yosh, finished this chapter! Again, sorry for the long wait. I'll try to update the next chapter in the next week and not another in 3 months or so like that.

Anyway, can you believe the latest chapter in Naruto? Naruto finally gained access to 100% of Kyuubi, I mean Kurama's powers, resulting in a freaking super Naruto! Now no one can say that Sasuke is overpowered. You have to give it to Kishimoto; he gave Sasuke upgrades in packages. But Naruto? He just gave him one very powerful upgrade to rule them all!

But still, too early to say that Naruto might be stronger than Sasuke or Tobi. For all we knew, he's still vulnerable to genjutsu and Amaterasu. And the Double Meteor Summon.

Another thing, technology will be an important plot point in this story so later on when it shows up, don't say that I didn't warn you. But it won't overtake the story so don't expect guns, airplanes and such to show up.


End file.
